Vulnerability
by Frog-Lizard
Summary: Lizard: When it comes down to it, Ratchet has always been the "safety blanket" of the team. Damaged? He'll fix ya. Hurt? He'll handle it. So what happens when this comfort is suddently, and brutally, torn from the picture? Not a death fic.
1. Chapter 1

_Lizard: Yay, my first Transformers fic! I saw the second movie, and though it wasn't perfect, it brought back my long buried love of this fandom. Thus my presence here. Anywho, I'm going to work hard at this and try to research some characters and whatnot, cuz frankly I have only actually seen the '07 and '09 movies, though I caught a couple episodes of one of the series when I was a kid. But I digress. Here is the story. I hope you likey!!_

* * *

It was late at the Autobot's temporary "headquarters," basically an abandoned air field with a few large buildings the mechs could use. Currently there were only six of said bots, with Bumblebee living with the Witwicky's, Ironhide with the Lennoxs, and Jazz being offline. One mech, however, was out to change that. Ratchet gave a sound similar to a human sigh and looked down at the smaller body lying on his examination table. So far he had been able to reattach some of the more vital parts, but now he was struggling to repair the smaller, more precise wiring that was necessary to Jazz's ability to walk and… well do much of anything, really.

With a hiss of hydraulics, the medic stepped away from the table, fatigue drawing him towards his berth. It had been several months since the destruction of the Fallen, and so far they had found no sign of Decepticon mischief. While this bored Ironhide out of his mind, Ratchet rather enjoyed the peace. With another tired "sigh," the pacifist medic ran a metal hand over his face, another habit picked up from the humans.

Without warning, pain erupted across his back, causing Ratchet to stumble forward with a startled yelp. Whipping around, he found himself staring into two brightly glowing red optics. Taking an alarmed step back, he tried to open a communications link, only to find that system fried by the attack. He growled. The fragger had known exactly where to hit him. In a placating manner, Ratchet lifted his hands.

"Starscream…," He said slowly.

"Hello, medic," The jet sneered, leveling his missile launcher at the Autobot's chest.

"There's no need for violence, Starscream, what do you need?" Ratchet tried, desperately.

Starscream snickered, "I need _you_ offline."

Before Ratchet could respond, the Decepticon had released a shot at point black range into the already injured mech's chest. There was a moment of intense pain and confusion as his sensors all went into spasms and tried to comprehend what had happened, followed by blissful darkness as the medic collapsed backwards….

The setting sun cast a peaceful light over the abandoned airstrip as Ironhide slowly made his way across the airfield towards one of the hangers. The humans were back in the "rec room," basically an old warehouse, along with Bumblebee, Sideswipe, and the twins, which gave the old mech a chance to talk with his long-time friend. Apparently Ratchet had practically disappeared the past few days, coming out only occasionally as he took advantage of the lull in action.

With one mighty arm, Ironhide eased the large door open and peered into the hanger. The front area, cut off by a partial wall from the rest, was empty, save for Ratchet's "desk" in the far corner. The weapons specialist stepped inside, and looked around the eerily quiet room.

"Ratchet? Ya in here?" He rumbled.

An uncomfortable feeling settled in his spark at the lack of response and he immediately turned on all his sensors for the medic. He found it quickly, but was even further alarmed by the weakness of the signal. With a hiss his cannons whirled to life as the massive mech made his way further into the building, all sensors on high alert. Coming around the corner to the actual med bay, his optics were met with a sight that caused rage to erupt in his spark and course through his systems.

"Optimus, we have a situation."

"_What is It, Ironhide?" _Optimus's response sounded strained.

"Ratchet. I may need backup on this."

"_On my way._"

With that short exchange, Ironhide hurriedly moved to kneel by his old friend's side to further inspect the wounds. His spark twisted in sympathy as he examined the horrifying mess of twisted metal. Energon poured steadily from multiple cut lines, and Ratchet's optics flickered slightly.

"C'mon Ratch, help me out here," Ironhide muttered, tapping the other mech lightly on the head.

Blue optics flashed online dully, "I-Iron-h-h-ide?"

The giant mech nodded slowly, "Yeah, it's me. Listen Ratch, can you tell me what happened?"

Ratchet's entire body was vibrating with pain as he tried to answer, "St-sta-r scre-sc-"

"Starscream?" Ironhide supplied, and was answered by a weak nod from his companion. He opened a com link, "Optimus, we have an infiltration. Starscream."

The autobot leader's voice sounded strained with concern when he responded, "_And Ratchet?"_

Ironhide frowned and looked over at the prone form next to him, "Condition critical."

Once again leaving the answers short, he turned his attention back to more pressing matters, "All right Hatchet, tell me what to do."

Ratchet continued to shudder uncontrollably, his optics flickering occasionally as he battled to stay online, "Pa-patches. T-t-top cab-in-n-nets."

Ironhide nodded and rose with a groan of old metal to retrieve the necessary tools. In a mad rush he threw open the cabinet Ratchet had indicated and yanked out the patches before returning to the injured bot's side. Dreading what he knew he had to do, Ironhide hesitated a moment before reaching slowly for one of the damaged Energon lines, having to move some damaged armor and wiring to reach the vital part. A pained groan escaped Ratchet's vocal processor and he unintentionally lurched away from 'Hide's hands.

The weapons specialist froze, "Where do you keep the anesthetic?"

Ratchet shook his head as firmly as he could, "N-no, n-need to h-h-help you. G-o on-n."

Ironhide almost insisted, but he knew his friend was right; he was in way over his head right now. So he once again slowly moved towards the line. Once again he felt Ratchet flinch under his large hands but this time he kept going until he had applied the patch. He grimaced at every sound of pain the medic failed to suppress; it was obvious he was hurting him, which tore at his spark.

The creak of a door followed by heavy footsteps informed them of Optimus's arrival. The massive crashes came slowly around the corner, and then froze at the doorway.

"Primus…," The commander rumbled before hesitantly continuing into the room and updating 'Hide, "There's no sign of Starscream on base…."

Ironhide grunted in response, still occupied with his task of applying patches. Ratchet's back suddenly arched and he jerked violently away with a strangled cry of pain. 'Hide lurched forward and placed to massive hands on the smaller mech's shoulders to hold him still and prevent any further damage.

Optimus had stiffened behind him, "He's still conscious?"

"He won't let me do anything about that," Ironhide growled in agitation, a miserable feeling of helplessness settling over him in an unfamiliar manner.

The medic gave a sound similar to a pained hiss, "He d-doesn-n't know w-what-t-t to d-o."

Optimus frowned, "Jolt-"

"Is-s too in-inexp-perienc-ced."

The bigger mechs both shared a pained look, but let the issue drop as the Prime opened a com link with Bumblebee.

"Come in Bumblebee," he rumbled through the link, trying to keep his voice calm.

"_Yes_ _Optimus_?" The younger bot asked curiously.

"There's been an infiltration, I want everyone on high alert," The commander ordered firmly.

He closed the link before Bumblebee could start questioning, and hoped the younger one would take control, trusting him to keep his cool over Sideswipe, or, Primus forbid, the twins. Looking down at the medic who had helped raise him, the mighty leader suddenly felt very vulnerable. Ratchet wasn't fond of fighting and may not have been the strongest bot out there, but he wasn't week, and this was an alarming state to see the proud Autobot in.

Slowly Optimus moved back outside when he felt Sideswipe approaching. The Stingray skidded to a stop and unfolded effortlessly into his bipedal form. Curiosity written all over his metallic face, he asked the inevitable question.

"What's up?"

Optimus gave a sigh and pushed the warrior away from the med bay slowly, "Starscream somehow got past us. I haven't been able to find him on any of my sensors, but we need to be sure."

Sideswipe frowned, "Starscream? How do you know-"

"He attacked Ratchet."

The silver mech stopped short, "Wha- He…He's okay though, right?"

Optimus sighed again and gave the younger one a gentle push, "Go do your job Sideswipe."

After a moments pause, he gave a barely audible response, transformed and sped off. The Prime turned back to the hanger he had just left, grimly wondering where Wheeljack was when you needed him. Slowly he trudged back to the side of his two oldest friends.

Sam stared after the retreating form of his guardian before turning back to his companions, "Wonder what that was about."

Will shrugged, "Whatever it was, it was something pretty important."

Sam turned to Mudflap, the only mech left in the rec room, "Do _you_ know?"

"Huh? Uh…somethin' 'bout an infiltration. I dunno, they just told me to stay here wit' you all," the small bot muttered, still sucked into whatever was playing on the television set they had moved into the far side of the room.

That brought a frown to Will's face, "An infiltration? Shouldn't you be at least a little concerned?"

The green Cybertronian didn't answer. Mikaela shifted uncomfortably and Will thanked whatever deity was listening that he hadn't brought his family today. Sam turned back to look outside nervously. After what seemed like an eternity Bumblebee returned, transforming abruptly.

"Sam, Mikaela, I'm taking you both home, _now._ Mudflap, you're giving Major Lennox a ride back to his house, Ironhide is occupied," he said in an abnormally professional tone that kicked the tension up a notch.

Mudflap frowned when Bumblebee switched off the TV, but one look at the more experienced warriors expression and he cut off any protests, transforming into his alt mode instead. Bumblebee held he hand up to help the humans off the shelf they had turned into the human section where they didn't have to worry about being stepped on.

Mikaela bit her lip, "Um, Bee? What's going on exactly?"

The mech didn't respond immediately, and when he did it was almost inaudibly soft, "Ratchet was ambushed in the med bay. I don't know the details, but it doesn't sound good."

"Ratch?" Sam echoed in surprise, "Why would someone attack him?"

"It actually kind of makes sense," Will said slowly, "If they take out your medic, whose going to fix the damaged bots?"

Bumblebee nodded slowly, "That's what Ironhide is thinking. We need to go now though."

He transformed and swung open his two doors. Once the human's were inside, both vehicles peeled off towards their respective homes.

* * *

_Well that's it for now... yeah, I like beating up those I love. ;) Sorry Ratch._

_I'd like to know if anyone is interested in this, thus I ask for reviews. I may very well need assistance in future chapters cuz, as I mentioned, I've only really seen the '07 and '09 movies, but I want other characters in this. So if anyone feels so inclined to assist me, I'd love the help. Thank y'all!!_

_LIZARD OUT_


	2. Chapter 2

_Lizard: Well, here it is. This is kinda a connecting chapter before things start to take off, so there's a lot of brooding and depressed mechs and humans. Some are rather OOC, but that's because of the circumstances._

_Disclaimer: Don't own it, or else there would be much more pain inflicted on our favorite mechs. *evil smirk*_

Optimus sighed and ran a giant hand over his face, two habits he had picked up from the humans. This was one of those times he would have turned to Ratchet for advice, or Jazz for a good cheering up. The fact that both of those were impossible only made him even more miserable. He really didn't want to have to face a battle right now, but right now that could very well be a possibility. Without Ratchet, things had just started falling apart, in a way, and no one had realized just how vital the grumpy old medic was to holding them all together as a team, a family.

'_By Primus, Ratchet, if you get out of this alive, I swear we won't ever take you for granted again,'_ the Prime promised fiercely.

He was brought out of his musings by the sound of his office door opening. Optimus looked up from behind his desk at the silver form of Sideswipe. He felt a bit of pride, mixed with sadness, for the young warrior. The twin had stepped up remarkably well during this dilemma, serving as a look out for any incoming Cybertronians, enemy or otherwise. The carefree Sideswipe had vanished with his brother, but this level of maturity was new, very helpful, and yet absolutely spark-shattering.

"Prime," Sides nodded, his optics unreadable, "I've picked up a convoy of four incoming. They have not attempted contact."

The blue and red mech's spark tightened and he nodded slowly, standing, "Contact the others, have Bumblebee and Skids return to base with our human allies, and everyone prepare for possible battle. I want you to go out and scout, see what you can find out."

The silver bot nodded sharply, "Yes Prime."

* * *

Almost a week had passed since the day Ratchet was found, dying, on the floor in the med bay. Sam looked outside quietly. It was summer break at college so he had come back to visit Mikaela and the Autobots, but this wasn't exactly how he had hoped things would go. Bumblebee _never_ left him and preferred to have Mikaela nearby as well and all the while he was oddly quiet. The mech explained Optimus had sent out a message to one of their friend who would actually know what to do, but they weren't sure if he was even alive anymore.

Apparently Ratchet was now totally out of it, in a state Sam supposed was like the Cybertronian equivalent of a coma. None of the humans had seen him, or were really clear on what had happened, but whatever it was, it certainly had all the Autobots on high alert. Even Mudflap and Skids had finally woken up to the fact that they could be facing a serious threat, without the comfort of knowing someone could always fix them up in time for the next wave.

Sam jumped when his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Bumblebee's engine roaring to life, followed by the obnoxious sound of a car alarm. The young man growled and ran quickly down the stares, shouting that he was coming the whole way. When launched himself out the door, he turned quickly to find Bumblebee already on the road, passenger door wide open. Narrowing his eyes, Sam slowly made his way across the grass and slid into the car. With a squeal of tires, Bumblebee immediately roared away and through the little suburban town in the direction of Mikaela's house.

Sam gripped the door tightly, "Woah woah!! Bee, where are we going!?"

At first he thought his friend wasn't going to reply after a moment of silence, when Bee spoke up, "We've detected possible Decepticons inbound. Optimus wants all our closest human allies to be brought to base immediately."

Sam was quiet a moment, "This is really bad isn't it, 'Bee?"

There was a sound similar to a sigh before the scout answered, "Yes Sam, this is definitely a very bad thing."

* * *

Jolt closed the armor over Ratcher's chest compartment with a sigh, covering the vital parts lying there. He really wished he knew what he was doing, this was something Ratchet would have handled. The blue bot turned at the sound of the med bay door sliding open. Blue optics peered at him from Ironhide's dark silhouette, cold and unreadable.

"How is he?" the weapon's specialist asked gruffly.

Jolt held his hands up helplessly, "He's still online, but I really don't know what I'm doing. This is way beyond me. There's just too much damage."

Ironhide was silent for a moment then grunted and walked slowly into the room, crossing it in three steps to stand by his old friend. Jolt quietly left the room, leaving the long-time companions to themselves. Once the door had slid shut again, the giant black mech slowly placed a hand on Ratchet's shoulder.

"Hang in there, Hatchet. We'll get ya fixed," he murmured softly.

* * *

_Cold. Very, very cold. And painful, agonizingly so. There was nothing here, just cold, pain, and darkness. Blissful, welcoming darkness…._

_

* * *

_

Lizard: Oh no!! The 'Cepticons are a'comin'!!! And Swipers is soundin' more like Prowl (from what I've gathered of their personalities)! Well, that's that chapter, and I have grand plans for the next one!! R&R my fellow squishies!! ;p

LIZARD OUT


	3. Chapter 3

_Lizard: I'm baaaa-aaack!!! Yay! So this chapter is pretty much a lot of Sideswipe. Yep. Except the last little paragraph-ette (hehheh, new word...). It took me a little while to get this up, cuz my laptop was taken for a day and a half, during which time I discovered my pathetic dependency on said piece of technology, but that's besides the point. Yes, I am slightly hyped right now. Anywho, read and enjoy._

_Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!_

* * *

Sideswipe attentively watched the horizon for the incoming Cybertronians, more than likely a Decepticon convoy sent to wreak havoc on their small base. He felt drained and depressed, to feelings that had once been very unusual for the now silver mech, but that were becoming all to familiar. He shook his helm, rubbing were it had started to throb. With Ratchet out and fading fast he could feel himself losing yet another friend, and another tie to his twin.

Sunstreaker. It had been far to long since Sideswipe had seen his psychotic yellow twin, and the warrior didn't think that was about to change. The last time he had seen Sunny, he had been fighting off more Seekers than he had cared to count. He had only turned his back for a moment when he suddenly felt the most excruciating pain erupt in his spark, causing him to collapse to his knees. His audio receptors had barely processed the energon freezing roar of pain his twin had made. And then there was nothing.

For some reason that thought brought on a fresh wave of hurt anger and with an outraged roar he turned and rammed one long blade up to the hilt in a nearby boulder, then violently yanked it back out. His other fist came around and connected with the rock, this time slightly scratching his paint, causing him to curse, loudly, and pace away, still snarling under his breath. His thoughts, however, were interrupted by an alarm going off in his processors, alerting him to the fact that one of the signals had heard him, and was heading his way. This realization brought on yet another string of colorful language as he ducked behind the boulder and prepared his gun.

The signal came closer, moving at high speeds towards the hiding Autobot. Sideswipe pressed closer to the rock. Out of old habit he found himself reaching out to the bond he had shared with his brother, a bond that had long been silent.

'_I really wish you were here right now Sunny,'_ he whispered weakly, purely out of longing for his twin, and not really expecting a response.

'_What?!?" _He got one anyways.

Sideswipe froze. The signal, having also stopped, was right on the other side of the boulder. A familiar feeling vibrated into his spark, one he hadn't felt in a very long time.

"S-Sunny?" he tentatively called out loud.

"Sides?" the response was just as hesitant.

Sideswipe bolted around the rock and barely stopped to register what he saw before tackling his twin full force. Sunstreaker let out a startled yelp as they fell to the ground.

"I thought you were dead!" Sides choked into his brothers chasis.

The yellow twin was still stunned from the impact, both physical and mental, but managed to snap out of it enough to slowly embrace his twin and rub his back comfortingly.

"Yeah…I thought you were to," his voice sounded dazed.

Carefully, Sunstreaker maneuvered himself and his presently incapacitated brother into a more upright position. Sideswipe was shaking with unsuppressed sobs as Sunny continued to rub slow circles on his back, to stunned to do much else. It took a few minutes for Sideswipe to lift his head again and look his brother in the face.

"How-" He started to ask, but was cut off by a sharp shake of his twins head.

Sunstreaker gently pushed his brother away enough that he could stand, then dragged the other up with him, "We can talk about that later. Right now we need to know what Prime's urgent call was all about," he said softly.

Sideswipe stiffened as he remembered the answer to that question, and how that answer was dying right now. He turned stiffly to his twin.

"Who all is with you?"

Sunstreaker looked at him in confusion, feeling the waves of distress rolling off his brother, but answered anyways, "Prowl, Wheeljack, and Bluestreak. Why, what's going on?"

"Wheeljack, thank Primus. Let's go," He turned and transformed, waiting for Sunny to follow suit before tearing off towards the other signals.

As they drove, another question occurred to the yellow twin, '_How many are with you here?'_

Sideswipe was silent a moment then responded, _'Six, not counting Jazz.'_

'_Why not counting Jazz?'_

Sunstreaker felt pain pulse through his brother at that, _'Because Jazz is dead. We haven't been able to bring him back yet.'_

The yellow twin slowed unconsciously as shock hit him like a wall. Before he could further question, however, Sideswipe had transformed and was standing in front of the rest of his convoy. The other three bots stared at him in alarm as Sunstreaker unfolded into his bipedal for next to him.

"Hey guys, look what I found!" Sunstreaker managed to smile, despite still processing the news he had received.

Before anyone could respond beyond that, Sideswipe had body slammed Wheeljack in a twin style bear hug. The engineer yelped in surprise.

"Would someone _please_ get him offa me?!"

"WHEELJACK!_YouhavenoideahhowhappyIamtoseeyouandwehavetogonowcuzweneedyouatthebasereallybadandsoweneedtogo!"_ the words came in a wild string at speeds Blurr would have been proud of.

Sunstreaker grabbed his brother from behind and pulled him off the inventor roughly, "What the slag, Sides?"

Prowl came forward and put a calm hand on the frantic twins shoulder, "Sideswipe, calm down and tell us what's going on. _Slowly._"

Sideswipe paused for a moment, panting as his cooling system tried to compensate for his outburst, "You know the call Optimus sent out? Well it's because we need help, like a medic. So…can we go?"

Bluestreak stared at him in confusion, "Why do you need a medic so bad?"

"Ratchet-"

"If Ratchet's here wouldn't that mean you already have a medic? Why do you need Wheeljack so bad, he technically isn't even a medic, he's an engineer! Are there a lot of injured bots? There can't be that many, so what's the pro-"

"Bluestreak!" Sideswipe snapped, "I was _going_ to say Ratchet has been injured, _badly_, and there's no one even remotely qualified to help him."

Silence.

"Oh."

"Now that that's cleared up…can we go?"

* * *

_There were voices, talking to him, but he didn't know what they said. Whenever he tried to hear, it just made it hurt more, so he turned around and hugged closer to the all-consuming darkness that welcomed him into painlessness…._

* * *

_Lizard: Yay! I didn't kill Sunny! And a big happy brotherly reunion!! oh happy day!! Don't you all love me?! ....yeah...Maybe I should lay of the almonds....._

_R&R if you please!_

_LIZARD OUT_


	4. Chapter 4

_Lizard: I LIVE!!!! Ok, I wasn't gone _that_ long, but still, sorry for the wait. There was a series of unfortunate events including but not limited to: a computer virus, minor writer's block, and a large hole in the back of my pants. Isn't my life exciting?_

_Anywho, I'm back, and not sure how this chap turned out. I'm at a point where I know where I'm going, just havin' a little trouble gettin' there. But here goes nothing._

* * *

'_Sideswipe to Prime, helloooooooooo-'_

'_Yes Sideswipe?'_

'_They're here! And they ain't Decepti-creeps!'_

Optimus barely had time to register what that comment meant when the sound of high performance engines roaring into the complex met his audios. The Autobot leader slowly stood up from behind his desk and strode out to the main hangar. What he saw nearly stopped his spark and sent a wave of an unfamiliar feeling of relief and joy through his processors. Sideswipe unfolded from his alt mode and waved an arm at his companions, "grinning like an idiot" as the humans would say.

"They heard the distress call and came as soon as they could! And Wheeljack's here! And-"

Prowl cut him off, stepping forward, "We would have attempted to contact you, but we didn't know the nature of your situation and were afraid of doing anything that may expose you should you be in danger."

"Understandable, old friend, I'm just glad to see you all are alive and well," Optimus rumbled, smiling broadly.

Prowl's faceplates turned to a slight smile as well, but before the conversation could continue, a yellow blur flew into the room and promptly tackled both Sunstreaker and Bluestreak, who were standing apparently a bit to close together, in one fell sweep. Bumblebee chattered happily, completely forgetting about using his scratchy vocal processor.

"Watch the paint!" Sunstreaker yelped frantically trying to get the scout off of him.

Bluestreak squawked and flailed wildly, his face crushed into Bumblebee's chasis, shouting something incoherently into the mass of metal over him.

Bumblebee paused at that and quickly rolled off the other two, "What?"

The sniped rubbed his noseplate and glared at the younger bot, "I _said_ 'You're crushing my face, get off.'"

"Oh."

Bluestreak stared at him a moment longer, then repaid him with a tackle-hug of his own. Wheeljack looked on uncertainly.

"Not to ruin the moment or anything, but…Sideswipe said-" The engineer was cut off by Ironhide, who had materialized behind the group of reunited mechs.

"He's this way," the old weapon's specialist growled, waving for Wheeljack to follow him back out the door.

"Um…ok."

Optimus turned to Prowl with a sigh, "I hate to do this to you since you only just arrived, but we need to discuss many things."

His tactician nodded in understanding, "Lead the way."

This left the four younger bots to stand in the room. Bluestreak tilted his head, having finished crushing Bumblebee and helped the other to his feet.

"So….what now?"

Sunstreaker turned to his twin, "You said there were six of you right?" Sideswipe nodded, "Who are the others?"

Bumblebee and Sideswipe shared a look, anything to avoid being questioned about Ratchet.

"How 'bout we introduce you?"

* * *

"That looks…painful."

Ironhide rolled his optics at that redundancy, "Yeah, I'd say it probably hurt a bit."

Wheeljack didn't respond as he had already absorbed himself in examining the extent of the damage. After millions of years working alongside Ratchet he had gotten very good at repairing other bots, and had assisted in even some of the most severe cases. But back then he had always had the comfort of knowing Ratchet was at least within shouting distance should things head south.

After a few minutes of silence as Wheeljack ran a series of scans and carefully moved some damaged armor to see his patient's spark chamber better, Ironhide grew restless, "Well? Can you…," he stopped when his vocal processor mysteriously froze up.

Wheeljack sent him an understanding look over his shoulder, head fins flashing, "I should be able to repair most of the damage, considering there are no setbacks. But it'll take time."

The weapons specialist felt a weight lift off his shoulders, though he knew this was far from over, and nodded, feeling suddenly very tired, "So long as you can fix him."

The engineer finished scanning and turned to face his older companion, "Get outta here, I work better when I don't have someone lookin' over my shoulder," he ordered gruffly, then added in a softer tone, "I'll let you know if there's any change."

Ironhide hesitated, but was quickly and firmly shoved back towards the door by the smaller mech, and with one last glance at Ratchet's still form, he walked out. Wheeljack's cooling system gave a stressed huff. He turned back to the figure on the medical berth, reached for some tools, and got to work.

* * *

Prowl sat across from Optimus in his office. The black and white went over the datapads in front of him, detailing the events of these past few Earth "weeks." He frowned when he had finished, placing the datapad thoughtfully back on the Prime's desk.

"This is a bit out of character for the Decepticons, they don't normally plan so far ahead. Which also leads to the question, if they took the time to put this together, what's taking so long for them to attack?"

Optimus nodded tiredly, "We've been wondering the same thing. There's been no activity since the incident with Ratchet."

"Hm…It says here Starscream was not detected before or after the attack?"

"That's right."

"Then either it wasn't Starscream, or he has found some way to disguise his signal even at close range for extended periods of time. Which could mean this was a sort of test run to see if this thing worked. And if that's the case, then another attempt like this could be imminent, as well as a full scale attack," he murmured thoughtfully, then turned back to Optimus, "Considering even if it _wasn't_ Starscream the attacker would have had to disguise his signal somehow I wouldn't be surprised if that is exactly what's going on, which puts us all in jeopardy."

"What do you suggest?" _Primus_ it was nice having a tactician again….

"No one is to be alone, and we need to run constant patrols. They most likely are unaware of our arrival and it's possible they don't even know Ratchet survived the initial assassination attempt, which could work to our advantage," Prowl started rattling off a list of tactics and strategies, just like old times.

Optimus nodded from time to time when appropriate, commented when necessary, and pretty much just relished having someone else do the planning for a change, while he listened and helped when needed.

* * *

_He thought it was over, it would go away. He had given up. But something was tugging at him, trying to pull him from the comfort of the darkness. And so he fought back._

* * *

_Lizard: Dun dun dun!! Does Ratchet want to die? The newbies are meeting the oldies? The Decepticons have turned into an evil underground cult of mad scientists and savage assasins?!? Do I even know what I'm doing??? _

_As I said, I'm having a little trouble, but nothing to major. However, if you have any thoughts or suggestions, leave 'em in a review and I'll consider all carefully. Thank you!!_

_LIZARD OUT_


	5. Chapter 5

_Lizard: I'm back…again. Yeah, this took me way to long, I had some writer's block, cuz apparently I threw in a twist last chapter that not even I had anticipated or intended O_o. oops. And…Wheeljack. I really don't know if I did him justice, as stated in earlier chapters I haven't really watched any of the old cartoons, and Wheeljack isn't in the '07 '09 movies, sooooo…yeah, hope I made him talk and act right, and not like Ironhide from G1...that'd be weird…._

_Aaaaannyways...read on!! And I don't own them!!!_

**_(Insertstupidlinethatwon'tstick.)_**

"Ah…Wheeljack?" A voice tentatively called from the door to the medbay.

The engineer looked up from his work at the young blue mech standing awkwardly near the entryway.

"Yeah?"

"Uh…I came to see if you needed help with anything. I'm, uh…sorta Ratchet's apprentice. My name's Jolt," the blue muttered.

Wheeljack tilted his head, "Ah, good, you'll come in handy. Now get over here."

The kid looked slightly surprised but did as he was told. The older mech quietly noted the way Jolt regarded his offline mentor anxiously, obviously quite upset by the whole thing. He patted him on the shoulder.

"Solder those wires and get that energon line patched up better, I'll be workin' on his spark chamber," The engineer instructed.

Jolt nodded and started to work on the damage to Ratchet's lower chasis, when he noticed something unusual, "Um, sir? What is…that?"

Wheeljack glanced at the machine his younger companion had indicated, "Spark stabilizer, or at least, it'll work as one for now. We didn't really have any premade, so I just made due."

"You made it?" Jolt asked in wonder, then another thought occurred to him, "Wait, spark stabilizer?"

"Yes, and yes. His spark keeps tryin' to fade every time I get to fixin' him. Don't know why, but this should keep 'em online."

"Oh," Jolt said softly, and returned to carefully repairing the damage he had only managed to patch earlier.

Wheeljack didn't respond, merely continued to repair the spark chamber of his old friend. The young mech next to him wasn't too bad at this, obviously still new at it, but he was doing a fair job and had stabilized Ratchet pretty well. His servos were shaking a bit though….

"Calm down kid, yer gonna solder his circuits to his struts!" the engineer chuckled, reaching over to steady the younger mech's hands.

"Ah! Uh, sorry," Jolt managed a nervous half-grin.

"S'alright," Wheeljack murmured absentmindedly, already absorbed in his welding and patching again, "Just keep-"

He was cut off by a sudden beeping from one of the monitors hooked to Ratchet's chasis. Jolt jumped and stared wide-opticed at the shrieking machine, the machine that was supposed to be measuring his mentor's spark power. Next to him, Wheeljack swore and reached for a tool that was surprisingly close, and had apparently already been used recently. With deft hands he attached two wires to either side of the medic's spark chamber then reached over to Jolt and pushed him away from the berth before activating the tool. The still form before them gave a slight lurch and a light flashed in his chest before the alarm quieted again.

There was a moment of silence as Wheeljack ran a hand over his faceplates tiredly, before Jolt finally spoke in a slightly shaky voice, "Did his spark j-just…."

Wheeljack looked over at him wearily, "That shouldn't have happened. He's fighting us, and I have no slagging clue why, but I need you to go get Ironhide, tell 'em I need to ask 'em something'. Alright, kid?"

"O-ok," Jolt quickly retreated out of the room, leaving the engineer to his work once again.

He glared half-heartedly down at the form below him, "I dunno if you can here me, old mech, but ya gotta quit fightin' us. I'll fix ya up, but only if you'll let me."

* * *

"We weren't ever like that…were we?" Sunstreaker whispered to his brother, watching the two "mini-twins" beat each other senseless.

"_You gotta be kidding me_," an unfamiliar voice snorted from Bumblebee's speakers, as he gave them a disbelieving look.

Bluestreak snickered, "I hardly know them, and I'd say you were worse."

"Considering they used to get _everyone_ involved in their brawls, _I'd_ say you're right," Arcee giggled.

Mudflap and Skids were fighting when they arrived, yelling insults and throwing punches wildly. No finesse or style, Sunstreaker noted, while Sideswipe finally decided to intervene.

"Ok, guys, break it up, before you break each other," he grabbed them both by their back paneling and yanked them apart, "Seriously, you two are insane," he added, setting them back down, apart.

Skids puffed up his chestplates and gave his best glare, "We is not! We just practicin'!"

Sunstreaker snorted behind his brother, "For what? Attack of the midgets?"

The mini-twins snapped their heads in his direction, "Who the slag are you?"

Arcee pushed to the front of the group and took over before another brawl broke out, "Mudflap, Skids, this is Sunstreaker, Sideswipes' twin, and their friend Bluestreak. They just arrived with two other mechs to help with Ratchet," she explained, talking as though she were speaking to younglings rather than two young mechs.

"You hath a twin?" Mudflap looked up at Sideswipe, their sort-of-mentor, with wide optics.

"Yeah, we were, ah…separated for a while," the silver mech explained.

Mudflap stared at him for another moment, and then described the situation to the best of his ability, "Awthum."

Bumblebee gave a somewhat sad attempt at a laugh, then waved a hand at the human portion of the rec room, "These are some of our human allies, Sam Witwicky, and Mikaela Banes, Major William Lennox and his family, Sarah and Annabelle."

Mikaela smiled brightly at the newcomers and Annabelle waved excitedly at the new robots who moved next to their little shelf with curious optics. Bluestreak leaned down a bit to get a better look.

"Hey there, my names Bluestreak, which is a little strange considering I'm not blue but actually grey, but oh well. Speaking of which, your names are strange, do they mean something or is that not how your species works, and what is this synthetic wrapping you have around your frames? I've never seen anything like you before, we had organics sometimes of cybertron that they kept as pets, but you seem different, like smarter and stuff and did you know that-"

The overwhelmed looks he was getting didn't faze the talkative young mech, but the Sideswipe quickly leapt to the rescue, "Bluestreak likes talking. A lot."

Will looked up at the mech who now had a hand clamped over his mouth plates in bemusement, "Yeah…I actually think your name is pretty fitting, Blue."

The mech looked down at him in surprise, saying something that may have been: "You do?"

"Uh-huh. And this guy is your twin?" he indicated Sunstreaker, who looked a little disdainful of the squishy humans.

Sideswipe nodded excitedly, "Yeah, Sunstreaker. He's-"

"The attractive one," Sunstreaker finished rather unhelpfully.

Sideswipe rolled his optics, "You wish."

"Nope. I _know_."

The twins almost immediately fell to bickering as the mini-twins watched with absolute fascination as their mentor suddenly became much more like them. Arcee shared a smile with Bumblebee and Bluestreak at seeing the separated twins together again, and all three felt a bit of dread for the pranks they knew were to come, while the humans laughed at the absurd comments being exchanged. In face everyone almost forgot about the dire situation they were presently in, until they heard an alarmed yell followed by two explosions.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment as they all processed what that meant. After the exchange of several nervous looks, and a frightened question from Annabelle, Sideswipe finally spoke, addressing Bumblebee and Arcee.

"Did that sound like Jolt?"

* * *

_He could hear the voices, though he still had no idea what they said. All he knew was the pain they brought, and the way they forced him back whenever he tried to escape. He hated them, but at the same time, something kept trying to say he loved them._

* * *

_Lizard: I don't even know why I add those last little things, except maybe for later. And I feel like I'm dragging this story out…it was originally supposed to be much shorter, but I started throwing monkey wrenches at the characters and can't seem to stop. Do they have a monkey wrench-ers anonymous?_

_Anywho once again I am terribly sorry for the delay and I hope you all forgive me enough to review (hinthint)!_

_Thanks again for reading!_

_LIZARD OUT_


	6. Chapter 6

_Lizard: School sucks. It really does. That's what took me so long, so I'm sorry. I liked this chapter though, so I'm still happy. I hope you all are._

_A note to **Grumpy Old Diamond** (and anyone else who may be lost): Jolt is the blue car in the second movie. He pretty much doesn't do much. He's just kinda…there. And Wheeljack is pretty much awesome. I love him. He's the Autobot's mad scientist. And he's awesome. Ha, hope that clears up…well not much probably, but it's better than nothing._

_On with the story of characters I do not own!!_

* * *

The group of humans and bots all rushed outside. A thin wisp of smoke rose from somewhere across the complex, but before anyone else could react, Prowl was completely on top of things.

'_Report,' _he snapped briskly over a general frequency.

To everyone's surprise it was actually Ironhide who responded, _'We're fine.'_

'_What happened, Ironhide?'_ Prowl pressed.

Arcee started towards the smoke, motioning the others should follow.

'_Looks like another attempt. Jolt got a little blast in the side, but he'll be fine. Can't say the same for Skywarp though.'_

At this, Sideswipe broke in, _'Skywarp?!'_

'_Yep, the slagger tried ta get the drop on Jolt. Didn't see me though,' _he sounded quite proud of this fact.

'_Take him to the brig and report back to me and Prime. Jolt, can you take care of your damage?' _Prowl continued.

'_Y-yes sir.'_

At this point Arcee came into view of the scene. The smoke was rising from the twitching form of what must have been Skywarp suggesting that the explosion was Ironhide's canons. Jolt was sitting awkwardly and staring at the Decepticon in shock, his own scorched side slowly oozing energon. Ironhide stood off to the side, looking quite pleased about using his canons, though he continued to glare at their attacker.

Arcee paused for a moment, then pulled up next to Jolt, "Hey, snap out of it!"

She punched his arm lightly, causing the mech to jump slightly and shook his helm briefly. With slightly dulled optics he turned to look at his side. His fingers prodded at it for a moment before he stood somewhat shakily.

"Ironhide, sir? Wheeljack wanted to speak with you about something concerning Ratchet," he intoned.

The weapon's specialist glanced over at the smaller mech who was already turning back towards the medbay and growled, "Tell him I'll be there as soon as I report to Prime 'n Prowl. Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, get this slagger out of here."

Not waiting for a reply he transformed and rumbled off to the main hanger.

* * *

Prowl rubbed his helm as he listened to Ironhide's brief explanation. If Skywarp was here and in their custody, they knew for certain this was a Decepticon plot. The question remained, however, what the _slag_ were they doing? Megatron did _not_ like planning, he liked shooting things, or stepping on them etcetera. These attacks, however, showed some sort of forethought, more like something Starscream would attempt….

"Prowl?" Optimus's deep baritone broke through his scattered thoughts.

"I don't believe this is a plot of Megatron's, however a full scale attack is imminent. I've no idea what is going on, but we need to be on high alert."

Ironhide snorted, "Doesn't that go without saying?" he turned back to Prime, "I have to go speak with Wheeljack and will remain with him for security's sake."

Without another word the black mech turned and left the building, not giving the other two Autobots a chance to respond. As he walked out onto the airfield, headed towards the medbay he noticed Jolt sitting with the twins, the original twins, by one of the warehouses. Sunstreaker was standing back a bit, but Sideswipe appeared to be trying to help the apprentice as best he could. Ironhide opened a private link with the silver mech.

'_The kid alright?'_

'_Yeah, 'Hide, He's fine. Just a bit on edge and a little surface wound. Good thing you were close, huh, old mech?' _Sideswipe chirped back.

Ironhide growled, _'Watch it youngling.'_

He cut the transmission but could see Sideswipe's frame shake lightly with laughter. With a snort he turned his attention back to the task at hand and tried to open a link with Wheeljack, but found the engineer had apparently cut off all outside contact. Stupid considering the circumstances, but he supposed it made sense. The scientist did have a tendency to get jumpy when working on other mechs.

He pushed open the door to the medbay and peered in. Wheeljack hadn't notice his prescence and was working in oblivious peace. And Ironhide just couldn't have that.

"You called?"

"Gah!" Wheeljack yelped in surprise, whipping around to see the looming figure of the weapon's specialist leaning in the doorway, "How many times are you slaggin' glitches going to sneak up on me like that!" he snapped irritably.

"If you had your scanners on…," Ironhide trailed off pointedly as he pushed off of the wall and moved further into the room.

Wheeljack waved an agitated arm at his patient, "I was preoccupied."

The black mech winced internally at Ratchet's state, but continued on in the conversation, "So I see," he rumbled, "I take it, then, you are unaware of the most recent developments?"

"What developments?"

"They came back, went after Jolt. He's fine," he added hastily at the look of Wheeljack's faceplates, "A bit shook up, got grazed by a shot. We caught the slagger, Skywarp. To sum things up, Prowl has ordered everyone be on high alert and never be alone. Now what was it you needed to ask?"

Wheeljack's processor reeled for a moment at the new information combined with Ironhide's abrupt change in subject, but to his credit he recovered quickly.

"Yes it's, uh, Ratchet. He's responding differently than I hoped he would. So I was wonderin' if there was anything in the way he acted before going into stasis that may point to the problem, what he did, how he acted, anything that might explain why he's fighting me so hard. Basically…what was his mental state?"

Ironhide didn't reply right away as he circled slowly around Ratchet's table, laying one massive hand on the alarmingly cold shoulder.

"He's fighting?" Wheeljack nodded in affirmation, "Stupid slagger…before he went out he was being a stupid slagger and he still has to be now. Before he wouldn't go offline, had to tell me what to do even though he was in…pain."

Wheeljack didn't look up from the still form between them, "How much pain, would you say?"

The black mech grunted, "Too much, could barely speak," oddly he was about to have the same problem, "He was…frightened. Not of going offline, but of what that would mean for us," he looked up sharply at Wheeljack, "Do _not_ tell him I said that."

Wheeljack chuckled though it sounded almost forced. There was a moment of contemplative silence as both of the functioning mechs mulled over their own dark thoughts. Ironhide wondering at the irony of the situation in that this was exactly the kind of thing he and Ratchet always would discuss when the stress got to bad, and how Sergeant Eppes had pretty well summed up the whole deal a week ago when he said simply, "Well this royally sucks."

Wheeljack was frustrated. He knew he could fix Ratchet, he just _knew_ it. But if he had to restart the slagger's fraggin' spark every few minutes the stress of those shocks would eventually kill the damaged mech. He just couldn't understand why Ratchet would want to offline, it didn't…. It clicked.

"Pain," the engineer gasped, his head jerking up.

Ironhide lifted his helm as well and gave Wheeljack an odd look, "What?"

Wheeljack was practically giddy, "The reason he's responding poorly is 'cause he's in pain!"

The large black mech looked at him as though he was afraid he might have to knock the mad scientist out, "And this is good…why?"

Wheeljack was waving his arms wildly, "Because I can fix that! If he's feeling pain it means his neural receptors didn't turn off when he went into stasis. I can manually shut them off and get back to repairs!"

Ironhide stared at him for a long moment, "And you're just figuring this out?"

"Yep!"

"Okay then, do it," he rumbled, still a bit perplexed.

"Well it… isn't really that simple. With the damage, it'll still be tough to reach the right wires and he'll feel all of it," Wheeljack explained, finally coming down from his "discovery high."

Ironhide frowned, "Can I…help?"

Wheeljack had moved off to one side of the room and was rummaging through some tools, "No, you just…wait yes! You can talk to him!"

The other mech once again looked at him like he'd gone completely on the fritz, "Huh?"

"Just…talk. He might hear you, even if he doesn't understand, and it might help keep him, ya know, here."

Ironhide stared dumbly at the apparently insane engineer who had already positioned himself next to Ratchet's helm. Wheeljack waved an encouraging hand at him before setting about carefully working on the back of his friend's neck. Ironhide turned back to the injured mech. This _really_ wasn't his forte. At all. He didn't talk, he blew things up.

He managed an awkward start, "Um…hi?" A snort came from Wheeljack and he glared, "Shut it."

The other mech didn't respond, but after a moment suddenly stopped his work.

"Talk," he hissed.

Ironhide glanced at Ratchet's exposed spark chamber and realized the reason for Wheeljack's distress. The glowing light amidst twisted and charred metal was flickering and slowly fading. His own spark lurched.

"Why? It obviously didn't do anything," he snapped.

The spark continued shuttering, and Ironhide could tell the engineer was running constant scans on the chamber. Wheeljack's gaze flashed over to an item Ironhide recognized as one used to restart sparks. In an automatic response to stress, the black mech's canons whirred slightly to life. His only conscious companion shot him a glare then stopped and looked back at Ratchet's chasis.

The spark had stopped flickering.

"…Do that again," Wheeljack encouraged.

For the third time in the past hour, Ironhide gave him a slightly-skeptical-and-a-lot-concerned look but twirled his canons nonetheless. Ratchet's spark shuddered slightly and seemed to grow just a bit brighter. Wheeljack smirked.

"Huh…so what does it say about a mech when his oldest friend finds the sound of his canons coming online more familiar and comforting than his voice?" he asked cheekily.

"Shut up."

* * *

_As pain once again attacked him, he tried to pull away to his only comfort. The dark. But as he was just escaping the pain's grasp as sound broke through the haze. He couldn't remember why but…that sound meant safety, safety meant the pain would leave. He wanted to be near the sound. And so he pushed towards it, towards the light._

* * *

_Lizard: Hehheh, I had to have a little fun at Ol' 'Hide's expense. And now we have happy! Happy is good. I like happy! But will it last? We shall see, we shall see. *insert evil laughter here*_

_I liked this chapter, at least the end. Twas fun to write. I hope you all enjoyed it and I hope I am living up to any expectations!_

_LIZARD OUT_


	7. Chapter 7

_Lizard: I just had the _CRAZIEST _idea!! What if I wrote the story, completed it, and _then _started typing it up and posting chapters!! Then I could update regularly and wouldn't keep you waiting! Isn't that _wild_!?!_

_Joking aside, I really am quite sorry. School has swallowed me and my creativity like my cousin's locker swallows Spanish-English dictionaries… and alas I have only just escaped this writing drought. If you can call it that._

_Anyways, here's the newest chapter, a Sideswipe heavy one, and with it I must say I believe there is only one chapter following it. Possibly and epilogue, but we have nearly reached the end…. Oh, and the lack of lines...they hate me, they won't stick. It sucks. So I did **&&&** instead!! yay!_

_And…end long rambling Author's note! Read on peoples!_

**_&&&_**

"Okay, what do I do again?"

Jolt groaned and swung a hand at Sideswipe, who easily ducked, "Just take out that broken shard of armor."

The other mech frowned as he examined the wound, his twin snickering behind at his dilemma. It wasn't a deep wound by itself, but when Jolt had fallen he had done so on a piece of armor that broke off in the initial attack, thus impaling himself. The apprentice medic said he didn't think it was serious, but it was _quite_ uncomfortable, and he was afraid of the damage it might cause if he left it. Unfortunately the shard was in just such a position he couldn't reach it himself, and that's where Sideswipe came in.

"Ew…I have to reach in _there_?" said mech balked at the charred and still slightly leaking hole in his friend's side.

"Yes! We've been over this already, _four times_, now can you _please_ just get it out?!"

"Okay, okay. Sorry."

Sideswipe cringed as he carefully moved some jagged armor out of the way and slid his fingers into the small hole carved by Skywarp's missile. He found the shard easily and gave an experimental tug. Jolt lurched and held up a hand for his friend to stop.

"Wait, something's not right," he hissed, his optics dimming as he ran yet another internal scan.

"What? Did I do something?" Sideswipe asked anxiously, jumping ever so slightly, but just enough to jostle the sliver again.

"Let go, slag-head!" Jolt snapped, his optics lighting back up.

Sunstreaker clouted his twin over the back of the helm, "Idiot, you can't just jerk it around like that!"

"Well I don't see _you_ trying to help!"

"Are you kidding?! I can't get energon on this paintjob, it'll-"

"You are such a-"

"Guys!" Jolt cut into the verbal match with a slightly desperate tone, "Just…stop, okay? I need to go to the medbay, are you coming or not?"

Sideswipe was immediately on his feet, "Well Prowl won't let us go anywhere alone, so yeah, I guess so," he leaned down to help his rather unsteady friend up, "You coming Sunny?"

No response.

"Sunny?"

He turned to look for his twin, panicking for just a moment before laying eyes on the golden mech. Mentally he smacked himself, of course Sunstreaker wasn't going to disappear again, he was being ridiculous.

"Do you two see that?" Sunstreaker asked slowly, pointing.

The others turned to look were he had indicated and locked their optics onto three very suspicious and very fast specks on the skyline, coming towards them.

"Decepticons?" Jolt asked nervously.

Sideswipe tilted his head and tried to run a long distance scan, but nothing came up, "I dunno…."

The trio watched for about another minute, trying to recognize the figures fast approaching. By then they were much closer, and a sleek, alien design to the largest one made the answer to their question clear. Sunstreaker gave Sideswipe a nudge over their bond, and his twin gave an almost imperceptible nod.

'_Prime, we got company_,' he warned, completely ignoring protocol.

'_What is it, Sideswipe_,' his leader sounded weary and like he really didn't want to know.

'_We got what looks like a couple Seekers inbound, and it looks like ol' Mega-head himself is going to pay us a little visit.'_

There was a pause, and Sideswipe could just imagine their commander running a hand over his faceplates in distress, _'Understood,'_ he switched to a general frequency_, 'Autobots, the enemy has been spotted approaching. Prepare for possible battle_.'

Sunstreaker's engine revved excitedly, and Sideswipe relished the feelings pounding through their newly restored bond. His twin glanced back at him with a smirk, apparently sharing that thought. Their grins faded, however, when their optics landed on the third mech in their group. Jolt seemed to have actually gotten _worse_ in the past few minutes, and was listing heavily to one side.

Sideswipe quickly grabbed the unsteady mech's arm and rapped him lightly on the forehead, "Hey Jolt, you still with us?"

The younger mech shuddered slightly, "Y-yeah. I-I just need to g-get to the me-me-me-"

Another shudder wracked his frame, and this time caused him to crumble to the ground. The twins jumped forward in alarm.

"What the slag?!" Sunstreaker yelped, seeing the energon for the first time seeping from their companion's injuries, "Sides! You killed him!"

His twin sputtered, "I did _not_! He's still online!"

He was kneeling by the slightly quivering form and carefully rolling him over to look at the damaged side. Energon leaked steadily down the length of the shard, and it looked like more was dripping through his back. The soft, slightly strained hum of the blue mech's system was all that assured Sideswipe that he _hadn't_ killed the apprentice.

"Help me carry him," he muttered, maneuvering an arm over his shoulders.

"What?! He'll get energon and lubricant all over me!"

"Sunstreaker, get over here and help me carry him _now_!!!" the silver twin roared in a very good impression of their own creator from all those vorns ago.

It had the desired affect and the golden mech was almost instantly on the other side, helping lift their damaged comrade. It didn't take long to reach the medbay, but the sound of jets could now be heard approaching and they rushed into the hangar. Inside Ironhide and Wheeljack looked up in surprise, and the old weapon's specialist's visage soon darkened.

"What the _slag_ happened?" he rumbled as the duo set down their burden.

"It-"

"Sideswipe killed him!" Sunstreaker blurted out.

"I did _not!!" _he smacked his twin on the back of the helm, "He told me to try and take out some shard in his side, and I guess it must have been worse than he thought it was…" he muttered.

Wheeljack said something under his breath and moved away from Ratchet to scan the newest patient. It was then that the first blasts rocked the facility, causing the lights to flicker. Sideswipe ran a hasty scan of the base, but to his severe confusion, found nothing but the usual Autobot signals.

"Where are they?" he asked out loud.

Ironhide had apparently reacted the same as him, as he looked even more angry than usual, "Signal cloaks. Explains a lot. Sideswipe, stay with Wheeljack, Sunstreaker, come with me."

With that the enormous black mech charged out of the building, and with a final, regretful, glance at his twin, Sunstreaker followed. Sideswipe clenched his fists in agitation, when he was brought back by a Cybertronian curse that is best left unrepeated.

"What's wrong?" he asked hesitantly.

Wheeljack was reaching for some clamps in the drawers beneath the table, "It pierced one of his main energon lines. The metal probably messed up his first scans, but when you tried to pull it out it severed the line."

Another blast came dangerously close to the medbay. Wheeljack cursed again and put a clamp on the energon lines that were bleeding the worst, then turned to grab the necessary tools to repair the young mech. Sideswipe hung back nervously, guilt pulsing at his spark as well as an almost painful urge to join his brother in battle.

**_&&&_**

Back outside Sunstreaker was easily dodging the shots Starscream and Thundercracker were raining down on them. Megatron had indeed joined them, but hung back, seemingly more interested in watching the destruction. The most disturbing problem, however, was the ground troops. Drones as well as some old faces he hadn't seen in a while, Barricade among them, had seemed to come out of no where, nothing showing up on their scans.

Something crashed into him from behind and he whipped around blindly swinging at whoever had been foolish enough to attack him. Swindle ducked out of the way with a slight laugh, twirling a stolen energon knife in his fingers. Sunstreaker snarled and leapt at the weapons dealer, but before he could grab the thief, the tan 'con was gone. He growled and turned constantly in a circle, trying not to be snuck up on again.

That's when he saw the other twins, those annoying little Chevy Autobots. No class, no grace…and no processors if he had to guess. But at that moment he saw Thundercracker maneuvering behind the distracted twins as they fought off a silver drone. The jet was taking aim on the orange one, Mudflap he thought, and was powering up his weapon… in that instant he saw Sideswipe instead of the idiotic little 'bot, and knew he couldn't stand by.

**_&&&_**

_Something was wrong, and it wasn't him this time. Someone else needed him, he didn't know who, nor why, but something was wrong, and he needed to fix it. He had to help, because no one touched his patients without permission._

**_&&&_**

_Lizard: I gave you a cliffy! Yay!_

_So, the Sideswipe squeamish about Jolt's hole in side thing might not be accurate, but I think it would be something like one of my friends telling me to pull a big stick out of their side…icky._

_I hope you liked this, and as I said, there is probably only one chapter after this. Or I could be lying and about to kill everyone off. Ya never know. R&R peoples!_

_LIZARD OUT_


	8. Chapter 8

_Lizard: *peeks nervously out from under her bed* is it safe?_

_Eheh…over one month. That's…the worst case of writer's block I've had in a while…oops._

_Yeah…Good news! I'm not dead! I still care about this story, and am hoping to finish _Manic_ soon, even though dear Jazz isn't cooperating quite as I wished he would. I think he's mad. Can't really blame him I suppose. If you haven't read that story …don't, unless you can read really dark, depressing, rated M stories. Yes, I am pure evil and should be institutionalized. Sue me._

_…on second thought, please don't._

_Disclaimer: On the subject of law suits and legal ickiness, I don't own Transformers or the characters; I merely steal, abuse, and return them in bad condition._

_Frog: Don't ever let her borrow your CD player._

_Lizard: I never hurt your CD player…._

_Hmm…I should probably write the actual story now…._

* * *

"Jolt? C'mon kid, talk to me."

Jolt's systems gave a stuttered groan as they rebooted and he was brought out of the peaceful, _painless_, oblivion.

"That's it, now turn on your optics…."

Light once again made its way into his world when his optics onlined. He shuttered them twice, the inner workings still struggling to adjust to the light in the room, then moved to try and sit up, but a hand stopped him.

"Easy there, I got you stabilized, but if you start movin' around, I'm not sure it'll hold."

Turning his head slightly, Jolt was met with the sight of a relieved looking Wheeljack. Upon realizing some of his most recent memory files were corrupted he was about to ask what had happened, when a loud explosion wracked the building. A yelp of surprise escaped the younger mech, whilst the older cursed loudly.

Wheeljack turned to the smaller blue medic and briefly examined is impaled side, while giving a quick summary, "Decepticons attacked a few breems after you offlined. You lost a lot of energon, and I can't really fully repair the damage in these conditions so _hold still_. Call me _immediately_ if you feel _any_ change, got it?" He paused, "Primus I'm starting to sound like Ratchet."

Jolt nodded mutely to the instructions, gripping the edge of the berth and staring straight up at the ceiling. He heard the engineer cycle air a few feet away.

"Relax, they've got it under control."

With that he turned back to the seperate room at the back of the medbay to go through Ratchet's rather lacking supplies, hoping against hope there was something he could use to help Jolt. Explosions and shots thundered outside and Jolt cringed when one nearly hit the medbay. An almost pained rumble of a nearby engine caught his attention.

"Sideswipe?"

The silver mech snapped his head around to look at the youner mech who was staring at him with wide optics. Of course he would be afraid, battles were stressful all the time, but when one was incapacitated they could be downright terrifying. Sideswipe's frown deepened.

"Yeah?"

"Just…making sure it was you."

The older mech narrowed his optics, "Why? Your optics not working right?"

Jolt grimaced at the crashes coming from beyond the door, "Not yet. Why…Why are you h-ere."

His vocal processor was glitching terribly… Sideswipe skated over to his berth and noted the slight flickering of the young medics optics. Usually not a good sign. He wondered if he should call Wheeljack, but decided the engineer was already trying to find a way to fix the smaller mech, so he must know everything.

Jolt twitched at a loud bang near the medbay, "H-how bad is it?"

"How bad is what? The battle? Bad. Your side? Worse. That answer anything?"

The blue mech's systems gave an unhealthy whine. By the way his optics were wandering over the ceiling, however, Sideswipe figured he hadn't comprehended his assessment at all. He frowned. Life really sucked right now.

* * *

Wheeljack muttered to himself in agitation. First Ratchet, then Jolt, and pretty soon _everyone_ would be crowding the medbay in need of repairs. A blast rocked the building, and he wryly added, _'If the medbay's still around,'_ to his list of woes.

To make things better, Ratchet just couldn't keep everything in _normal_ places. _No_, that'd be too simple! He had to _organize_ everything in absolutely _ridiculous_ ways. Seriously, by the _atomic number_ of the items primary element?! Who went to that much trouble.

Apparently Ratchet.

The engineer rumbled. His fingers flew over every item in stock, optics flickering as he catalogued and memorized. It was about halfway through this process that his preoccupied processor finally registered a tiny whirring sound accompanied by a series of clicks. He froze. There was a pause and a moment later the small sound came again.

Slowly turning around, Wheeljack left his job unfinished in favor of looking in alarm at the only other mech in the room. Sure enough, the frustrated sound of a Cybertronian trapped in stasis and trying to online issued from Ratchet's battered systems.

"Oh slag."

_He wanted to wake up, but it was harder now. The light and the dark, swirling and dancing around. Light… dark. Light, dark. Lightdarklightdark…._

Wheeljack, now next to his comrades berth, ran every scan he was capable of. If these were correct, he really shouldn't be trying to online now. Granted, he was stable enough to survive, but in the middle of a battle? Really?

_Another press towards light, and suddenly there was more than light and dark. There was sound, and there was warmth._

An explosion came close and loud enough to make Wheeljack's optics flicker briefly with the overload before he shook it off. He stood for a moment longer, torn between knocking the medic back out and helping him online. The decision was made for him, however, when Sideswipe burst in.

"Hey 'Jack? Uh, Jolt's kinda getting worse, can you…What's going on?" he looked in confusion at the way Wheeljack was standing over Ratchet, a very strained look on what little of his faceplates was visible.

The engineer grimaced. He hated to admit it, but no matter how risky it was he needed Ratchet's help and expertise.

"Nothing Sideswipe. I'll be there in a minute, try to keep him online."

_Thoughts started taking shape for the first time in too long. A name surfaced; his name. Ratchet. Chief medical officer._

_Progress. Good._

Wheeljack reached under the table, not even noticing Sideswipe back nervously out of the room. He pulled out a small probe like tool and attached it to a latch on his hand. With gentle, yet firm movements he rotated Ratchet's helm to the side, giving him access to the port there that lead to his core neural unit.

With a twist and a click it was done. The rest was up to Ratchet.

_A wave of pain ripped from his chest and through the rest of his frame. He almost pulled back, choking on the sudden feeling, but-frag it all!-something was wrong, and he was going to slagging fix it!_

A brief shudder raced through the medic's body, and Wheeljack cautiously reached out to grab his friend's shoulder.

"Ratch? Can ya hear me?"

_Wheeljack?_

**_Clang!_**

With a yelp, Wheeljack found himself dragged down mere inches from a very ticked medic's faceplates. Sharp blue optics fixed him with a deadly glare, internal workings still sluggishly focusing to the light.

"What the _slag_ did you do?"

It had to have been Ratchet's scariest growl to date.

The engineer stared for a moment, frozen with shock and terror, "W-what? I didn't do-"

"Well someone did! And when I find out who, they'd fraggin' well better run like the slagging Pit."

A surprisingly strong shove knocked Wheeljack back into the table behind him. By the time error messages stopped scrolling across his vision, the imposing form of the Autobot's CMO was looming in front of him. Not even Megatron himself could look more terrible. In fact, it was the kind of look even Megatron would have run from.

A muffled crash outside caused Ratchet's optics to flicker slightly, and his scowl to deepen.

"Well?" he rumbled expectantly.

Wheeljack's processor was still playing catch up and all he could do at first was give a rather unintelligent sounding whine of his systems, before managing a meek, "You've missed a lot."

Ratchet looked at him a moment before crouching in front of him, the faint tickle of scans running over Wheeljack's systems.

The engineer almost laughed, "I'm not damaged, Ratch. Just uh….you _do_ realize you've been out for… over a month, I believe they call it?"

Ratchet stared a moment longer, "How the slag would I know that?"

"Good point. But you weren't…weren't supposed to online so soon."

Ratchet's systems made an irate snarl, "By the sounds outside, I'm guessing that doesn't really matter right now. Unless you happen to have brought First Aid with you, battle aftermath might be a bit much for you and Jolt to handle on your own, correct?"

Wheeljack glared, "I think we could have taken care of it just fine, my problem is Jolt is out of commission, and no, I don't have First Aid. Why would _I_ be doing repairs if he was here?"

The medics countenance darkened at the mention of Jolt's damage and he rose a bit unsteadily to his feet, "What happened to Jolt?"

Wheeljack shoved himself back to his feet, "To summarize, he got shot in the side, broke off a piece of armor, fell on said armor, impaled his side, then tried to remove it. Problem? The metal kept his scans from seeing the shard had nearly severed two main energon lines."

He looked up from yanking a tool from the table he fell into out of his knee joint to see Ratchet's expression was not a pleasant one. With a squeak, he stepped out of the medic's way. The other mech gave a deep, angry rumble, limping to the door like a giant, angry, chartreuse rain cloud, grumbling all the way.

Wheeljack recovered himself and dove after his friend, "Wait, Ratch!" he stumbled up next to him, still shaking out his leg, "Just, take it easy, a'right?"

Ratchet considered him a moment, then gave a slow nod. He turned back to the door and pushed it open easily. Wheeljack watched his faceplates closely, noticing every twitch and controlled grimace of pain that slipped through the well built defenses. On the other side of the room, Sideswipe was leaning over Jolt, tapping him lightly on the helm.

"Jolt? Hey, you in there? Jooo-ooolt," he shifted uncomfortably and turned around, "Wheeljack, he- Wha-huh-na?"

Ratchet jerked his head back a bit, "What?"

Sideswipe lifted one hand to point first at Ratchet, then Wheeljack, then the room, then back, "You…you…how?"

Wheeljack sighed and grabbed the younger mech, dragging him out of the way as Ratchet made his way over to Jolt's berth. The engineer didn't comment when the medic leaned heavily on the table, nor when his optics flickered a bit too much at the next explosion.

"It's alright Sideswipe. Obviously he had to wake up eventually, I just wish he had chosen a better time," he assured.

Ratchet snorted, "I'll be sure to ask next time. Now hand me a clamp."

"Thank you, that'd be nice," he dug around under the table for a moment before finding the desired item, "A reminder, you show any sign of needing rest, and I _will_ put you into forced stasis lock. Don't give me that look; it's for your own good."

The medic rumbled and rolled his optics. He leaned over his wounded apprentice and carefully shifted the armor in his way. Deft fingers attached the clamp, and with sure, steady movements he removed the patch Wheeljack had applied. Briefly examining the cut he motioned for the tools set on a tray a few meters away. Without a word, his friend complied, Sideswipe still watching dumbly.

Ratchet vented a weary sigh, everything should be under control now. So long as nothing else went wrong, they would be just fine.

* * *

"Move it!" Sunstreaker's voice bellowed over the sounds of battle.

The little orange twin looked up in alarm just in time to be tackled out of the way. Skids made a startled garbled sound at seeing his twin be bodyslammed by the much larger yellow mech, but Mudflap's screech drowned it out. Sunstreaker lifted his weapon mid fall and fired…only to feel the blast from Thundercracker's gun slam into his chest.

Somewhere Prowl shouted something in alarm, but the exclamation was lost on the gold twin as pain rocketed through his systems. Even that, though, was only a shadow of the panic he felt screaming through his bond with Sideswipe. They _never_ left their bond so open in battle, but this time they did, and he just _knew_ Sideswipe was paying the price….

* * *

**_"GET DOWN!!"_**

Wheeljack paused, "I didn't know Prowl could yell that loud."

Ratchet gave him a glare and retorted, "Well I didn't even know he was here, so you're one up on me."

A garbled screech nearly made Ratchet cut Jolt in half and he whipped around, ready to threaten Sideswipe into the next dimension, when he saw the look on the silver mechs face. Sideswipe swayed uneasily, optics flickering and going in and out of focus. He was completely tense, swords extended. Battle ready.

His face was contorted in a look of sheer agony, and the electronic chatter and whine hadn't stopped since the initial shriek. His helm snapped around in agitation. Ratchet took a step back, this was not normal.

"Sideswipe?" he said the name like a creator to a newly sparked protoform, soothing and quiet.

Sideswipes helm swung back to fix the medic with a half-crazed look, "Nonot bad thing ow pain hurts bad Sunny thing no hurt fix ow ow stop don't know don't know….."

Definitely not normal.

Not taking his optics off Sideswipe, Ratchet tilted his head a bit towards his only backup, "Sunstreaker?"

Wheeljack gave a nervous chuckle, "Like I said; you've missed a lot."

Ratchet nodded slowly, "They must have only been reunited recently then, so I would assume they would leave their bond wide open. If Sunsteaker was injured seriously in the battle, which by Prowl's little exclamation I would assume is the case, it could cause Sideswipe extreme mental side effects…."

Sideswipe continued shuddering and muttering complete nonsense. The only thing made clear by his rambling was he was in pain. A moment later, he snapped completely. With a whirr and shriek of systems, he lurched forward in a frenzied near attack on the table in front of him. Wheeljack, the closest to the unstable mech, leapt back in alarm.

**_Clang!!_**

"What the- Did you have to chuck a wrench at his head?! Isn't a sedative more, I don't know, _safe_?!"

Ratchet shrugged, "I didn't have time. Besides, his processor's glitched, would _you_ want to inject him while he slaughtered all our poor defenseless tables."

Wheeljack gaped at him, "Humans have a word for that thing you don't have. It's called a bedside manner."

"I've been a medic longer than their race has existed. I think I know what I'm doing better than them, now stay here."

The engineer jumped in alarm and leapt forward to grab Ratchet's arm as he started towards the exit, "Didn't I tell you to take it easy?!"

Ratchet gave him a withering look, "That was before I knew all the circumstances. Now let go."

"You are not-"

"_Let. Go._"

Wheeljack stared, Ratchet never used that tone, even on the twins.

He let go.

With a huff, Ratchet turned and stalked back out of the medbay. Immediately he was struck by how much smoke was drifting through the air. The sounds of battle had amplified and he turned down his audios as the crashes and bangs rattled his sensory units. Now was not the time for a serious processor ache to get in the way. He moved slowly, keeping as far away from the battle itself as he could. Scans ran continually over the field until he locked on to what he was looking for. Sunstreaker.

From what he could tell, the mech was on his own, besides what appeared to be the "mini-twins" a little ways away. On the ground nearby lay a Decepticon, apparently stunned. He ducked past some wreckage, and thanked Primus they were on the edge of the battle. Still scanning the entire field periodically, he focused most of his waning energy on the yellow twin. Energon levels: low. Spark pulse: abnormally fast. Cooling systems: Offline.

Readings continued scrolling through his processor as he half ran half limped across the compound. This was not his day.

* * *

Skids was not a happy camper. Or he thought that was how the human saying went. Anyways, he wasn't in a good mood. Battles were usually kind of fun. A good way to let out some energy, get some practice, yell some insults, and of course kick Decepticon skidplate. The problem? His brother was now limping around after being tackled by a mech twice his size, and said mech was lying half dead on the ground behind them.

Of course, the still form of the Decepticon jet next to the half dead one was not helping matters.

That Prowl guy had seen the shot before either of the mini twins could figure out what had just happened. He had yelled, from across the battlefield, to get down, and without question they did, as did almost everyone else. Over their bond Mudflap claimed he had even seen Megatron duck.

Anyways, long story short, Prowl had fired a shot of some kind at the jet that had shot at them, and the jet fell down. But he didn't offline, he just kind of lay there, looking royally ticked and unable to move. This would be amusing if it weren't for the fact that they were still being overrun by drones and therefore couldn't get rid of the jet even as he was slowly regaining mobility.

No, Skids was not happy at _all_.

* * *

_Lizard: I told you this was the last chapter._

_I lied._

_Heehee. I couldn't stop writing once I finally found my muse again, and it just kept getting longer and longer...so I stopped! And left you all with a cliffy! Hopefully for not as long this time._

_Hm...Now perhaps I should check on _Manic_, maybe Jazz will cooperate this time...._

_Well, review my wonderful and hopefully forgiving readers! It really does give me motivation. If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't have updated at all. So, thank you amazing people. (I have 57 reviews on this story at chap 7, my most successful story before this, _Son of the City_, had 57 reviews at chap 14! Awesome!)_

_LIZARD OUT_


	9. Chapter 9

_Lizard: *grins nervously* Please don't hunt me down with pitchforks and torches? It wasn't awhole__ month. Sure, only three days short, but still!_

_Eheh, yeah, the past few weeks have been rough, I haven't had the time or energy to do much, so I just kinda neglected this. I give you my sincerest apologies. Hopefully I'll be able to update sooner next time, but as we all know that never works out quite how I planned._

_Oh, and another note, since this story is winding down and _Manic_ isn't cooperating, my imagination has run wild and a new story has started to take shape. Problem? I'm not sure anyone would like it, thus I have set up a poll! On our profile, all you readers now have a mission. To take said poll after reading the summary placed at the top of the profile. Do you accept?_

_Well here's the story. Shorter than the last one by... a lot, but it's progress._

* * *

**_System reboot complete._**

Ratchet huffed in satisfaction as the information finally scrolled across his vision. Everything was still sluggish and pain was radiating from his torso, but he wasn't deterred from his current job. He was a medic, whether he should be walking or not, he was getting to that slagging twin.

With only slight difficulty he managed to reconnect to the Autobot general frequency. Immediately voices flooded his processor and he sighed in relief at the realization that everyone else seemed to be functioning acceptably well. He was almost to his destination when that relief shifted to confusion and concern.

_'Incoming to the West, Twins.'_

It was Ironhide, apparently telling Mudflap and Skids there was a Decepticon approaching. Ratchet turned up his sensors in the immediate area.

_'I'll get it,' _Ironhide muttered a moment later.

And Ratchet's confusion quickly turned to panic at the realization that _he_ was to the west of the twins. Apparently no one was bothering to read specific energy signals.

Scrambling to activate his comm. link, Ratchet sent a near plea across the general frequency, _'Please don't.'_

Silence.

A garbled stream of confused Cybertronian poured from Bluestreak's link. Ratchet groaned in a mix of pain and annoyance.

_'What?'_Bumblebee responded to Bluestreak's nonsensical tirade.

_'I don't know, I just started saying stuff, cause you know I do that when I'm confused, and I thought that sounded like Ratchet but I'm sure it can't be him so I'm not sure, maybe I have some glitch unless you all heard somethi-'_

_'We all heard it,' _Ironhide growled.

Ratchet wanted dearly to bang his helm against a wall, or bang all their helms against his wrench.

_'Bluestreak, shut the slag up. Ironhide, once again, don't shoot me or I will reconfigure your cannons into hair straighteners. And Prowl, Primus help me, if your logic processors are freezing up I _will_-'_

_'Eat you alive!'_ Skids interrupted.

_'…Sure, that'll work.'_

Bluestreak was the first to recover, once again, _'Primus, it _is_ him!'_

_'I…don't understand,' _Prowl finally managed.

An explosion rocked the field. Ratchet instinctively flashed scans over everyone, disturbed by the warnings he found running through Prowl's systems.

_'Ignore me, we can work it out later. Now you all have a job to do, as do I, so get to it!'_ he snapped irritably, his processor was starting to challenge his chest on the pain scale.

A few Yes sirs came from several of the younger warriors and Ratchet disconnected from the link. Ironhide was silent, but by the scans he was running Ratchet gathered that he was still coming towards the medic; hopefully out of concern for his safety and not because he wasn't convinced of Ratchet's miraculous return.

He snorted, miraculous really wasn't a word he should use to describe his current condition, nor the situation he was rapidly getting into.

Over the general frequency Optimus suddenly spoke, having just reconnected upon seeing most of his soldiers look very alarmed, _'What did I just miss?'_

_'Way to stay on top of things, Prime,'_ Ironhide responded dryly.

Much to Ratchet's frustration he found he was unable to locate any of the Decepticons, besides whoever was near Sunstreaker, though by the sounds he knew they were there. Cloaking signals was not new, but it wasn't common either. Apparently Starscream had taken the time to try and assure the Decepticon victory, either to suck up to Megatron, or the rest of their forces. Or perhaps both.

He was close now, he could hear the mini-twins shouting and cursing wildly. Unlike their usual banter, however, the taunts carried a tighter tone. Something was causing them stress. Coming around a pile of debris, he realized what.

The Decepticon near Sunstreaker was unrecognizably covered in dirt and energon, but he was obviously a Seeker, and obviously spittin' mad. The 'Con was shifting slightly, rotating it's awkwardly placed limbs and stiffly attempting to rise. Someone had hit him with a stunner, and the twins apparently had been and still were too distracted to permanently offline the jet. Drones continually bombarded the duo, and though they were holding their own, both kept glancing back at the Seeker they knew was slowly regaining function.

It took a moment for Ratchet to spot Sunstreaker, and when he did his spark froze. It had been a long time since he had seen the yellow twin, and this was not how he had hoped to meet again. The younger mech was sprawled unmoving on the desert sand, his chest smoking and oozing energon and coolant. His optics didn't even flicker, the only sign he was even still online was from the scans Ratchet kept running.

The Decepticon gave another heave of his body and gained a slightly seated position, a muttered curse escaping his vocalizer. The voice was familiar, though it took a moment to place. Thundercracker. His day just kept getting better and better, didn't it? Another shift and Thundercracker was slowly, shakily rising to his feet. He twitched violently where the stunner's affects hadn't completely worn off, but otherwise looked fairly stable. One shot from a standard stunner was not nearly enough to bring down a full sized Seeker for very long, and this was very much testament to that fact.

There was no more time for musing, however, when Thundercracker lifted his gun, aiming directly at Sunstreaker's spark chamber. His arm wavered, slowing him down, but that didn't give the Skids nearly enough time to intervene from where he was held up by a silver drone. He bashed through it anyways and staggered as fast as his disproportionate legs would let him, trying to help the mech who had saved his brother. It was no use though, and he knew it.

Sunstreaker was going to offline.

This thought had just crossed his processor when another sound rose above the battle. The jet heard it as well, but just as he turned his helm to locate the source, the sound rose into the shriek of a buzzsaw shredding through metal. Thundercracker roared in pain and swung his gun arm, only to have the end of it come flying off. Energon and lubricant spurted from the stump that was left after the impromptu ambutation, and he staggered backwards in a mild daze.

There was the unmistakable sound of Ironhide's cannons and the Seeker was reduced to a smoking pile of scrap. Skids stopped dead and gaped at the figure standing next to where the 'Con had been. Or…maybe standing wasn't the best word. Shaking off the shock, the green twin stumbled the rest of the way over to the medic's side. Ratchet was listing to the side, his frame vibrating and his optics flickering.

"Doc?" he asked uncertainly, a hand held out as though to catch the much bigger mech.

"What the _slag_ do you think you're doing!?" another voice bellowed from nearby.

Ironhide stalked up, and Skids _swore_ he saw smoke coming from the titanic mech's helm. The glare Ratchet fixed him with, though, was twice as terrifying, and Ironhide seemed to loose a bit of his gusto, though not much.

"My job," was the testy response.

With that he pushed past the other two mechs and limped heavily over to Sunstreaker's side. He dropped to his knees and started examining the golden twins injuries, glancing over his shoulder at the still motionless Ironhide and Skids.

"Now why don't you two go do yours?"

* * *

Prowl looked around the battlefield from his slightly higher vantage point on a small hill, taking advantage of a brief lull in action around him to take in the situation. It was then that, like in some pathetic and cliché human's audio-visual entertainment, the sun was blocked behind him and a shadow fell over the tactician. Just like in one such form of entertainment, he turned slowly to stare up at the creature behind him.

Megatron smirked down at the relatively small mech, and Prowl looked back defiantly. Even as he displayed unnatural calm on the exterior, though, inside his processor was reeling. What the _slag_ was going on? Why was Megatron stalking _him_, shouldn't he be off monologueing with Optimus? The giant Decepticon leader took a threatening step forward, and Prowl unconsciously stepped back. Megatron chuckled, then without warning swept on giant clawed hand down to snatch the tactician up by his doorwings.

Pain so intense he couldn't even scream exploded in the datsun's back. His back arched and an odd choked noise escaped his vocalizer as he was roughly lifted and shaken by the monster. Megatron laughed and held him at eye level.

"Would you like to know what's going on, little mech?"

Prowl continued to choke as the dreadful claws pierced his sensitive back panels, and another of the talons curved almost gently along his throat. He stared unseeingly past the Decepticon leader, his systems sputtering and wheezing.

Megatron chuckled again, "Well then, let me tell you…."

* * *

_Lizard: Remember when I said this story would end soon? Like...months ago? Well, that was before I felt like torturing Prowl. Why? Because I can._

_IT JUST KEEPS GOING!!!! I meant to end this story a _long _time ago, but for some reason I just can't! Now that's not to say we aren't nearing the end it's just....I was writing and there was Prowl and suddenly I wanted to kill him, so I did! Or did I?_

_Frog: I didn't know what to do! It was getting away! So I killed it!!!_

_Lizard: ...Inside joke._

_Frog: I'm SO using that line in my story XD_

_Lizard: Give credit to me!!! Anywho...read her story, by the way. It's good. OCs, yes, but good just the same._

_Yeah....anywhosit, don't forget to review, and take the poll!_

_LIZARD OUT_


	10. Chapter 10

_Lizard: Just two weeks!!! It's a miracle! Everyone rejoice and be glad, for I have conquered the evil enemy of procrastination and lazy-butt-ness!_

_Yeah, okay, enough self exaltation on my part. I am very happy to have done this. It's quite an accomplishment. Anywho…this story…is driving me insane. I don't know what I'm doing anymore. It just keeps coming. I hate it. And you know what's worse? I have _another_ story that just popped up and won't leave me alone! And it's freaking _**cute**_! I don't write _**cute**_!_

_Frog: It's all apart of my master plan!!! Lizard's writing HUMOR!!! Muahahahahaha_

_Lizard: *looks disturbed at sister* …what does my writing humor have to do with you getting minions and pop slushies? Everyone else, don't ask._

_Well, anyways…stupid Prowl has ruined my plans. Maybe I can still end this fairly soon…or maybe it will never end. Or maybe I'll just kill everyone with the Earth exploding. Ya never know._

_Disclaimer: They wouldn't let me own TF. I'm too mean._

* * *

Severed energon lines. Cracked spark chamber. Heavily damaged armor. Stripped circuitry.

Sunstreaker was in bad shape. Ratchet vented sharply, he needed the young mech in the medbay, but he couldn't get him there alone, much to his chagrin. His chest sent out waves of pain and he could feel several patches on his minor energon lines starting to fail. Carrying the heavily built warrior would just kill them both.

'_Ironhide, come in,'_ he called over a private link.

An inquiring ping met the request, prompting him to continue.

'_I need you to help me get Sustreaker to the medbay, quickly.'_

'_Understood.'_

Closing that link, Ratchet sent a brief databurst to Wheeljack to catch him up on the situation. Thankfully Ironhide had not gone far and was soon crouching next to his old friend. Ratchet staggered back out of his way.

"Be _careful_ with him, he's not stable," he warned sharply.

Ironhide grunted but, with a gentleness one his size should not possess, he lifted the smaller mech and stood. Shifting his burden to allow him to use at least one of his canons he nodded for Ratchet to follow close behind. Their progress was slow, with drones constantly impeding their way no matter how fast they were shot down by Ironhide's "babies." Ratchet, meanwhile, was constantly monitoring Sunstreaker's systems. Which was why neither of them noticed until it was too late.

"Decepticons, pull back!" Megatron's voice bellowed above the sounds of battle.

Ironhide stopped abruptly, causing Ratchet to nearly run into the larger mech.

"Pull back?" the two shared a confused look, "That's new."

Ratchet nodded in agreement. Why weren't they all out retreating?

"Optimus Prime!" The Decepticon leader's grating voice sounded much too pleased for Ratchet's liking, "You should know we are giving the Autobots a chance to surrender once and for all! If you refuse, what you have seen today is only a small glimpse of what we have in store!"

His pointed, demon face was twisted into a grimace that was probably supposed to be a smile, which made him only that much more disturbing. Snarls and insults whipped from the Autobot side in response, but Megatron seemed to only grow giddier, and with what could only be described as an evil giggle he lifted something in his claws for all to see.

"You've already lost two of your officers, why not this one as well?"

Ratchet felt his spark clutch in horror when he recognized the writhing form dangling from the Decepticon's cruel talons.

"Prowl," Ironhide growled.

"Release him, Megatron," Optimus called, and Ratchet could clearly hear all the stress of the past few weeks boiling over in his leader's voice.

"And why would I do that, Prime?" Megatron practically cooed.

Much to the medic's annoyance, Ironhide's bulk suddenly filled his vision field, blocking the unfolding scene. Before he could protest, however, Ironhide's voice rumbled over the comm. link.

_'Let him think you're dead.'_

Ratchet paused but finally shrank back, focusing on listening to this newest disaster.

'_Well?'_ he growled impatiently.

Ironhide rumbled, _'He's rigid, Megatron stabbed him through the back panels. How do his systems look?'_

Ratchet thrummed softly, flashing a scan out across the field to the tactician, _'The primary systems and relatively unharmed at this point. It's the pain that's going to deactivate him if we don't get to him soon.'_

Ironhide's ancient systems gave an agitated whirr but he remained otherwise silent as Optimus was speaking again.

"You know we will not surrender, Megatron, your threats are meaningless!"

Megatron snorted, and lifted Prowl higher, "As you wish."

With a simple flick of his wrist, he tore his wicked claws all the way through Prowl's sensitive back panels, the horrifying sound of tearing metal echoing across the battle field. Naturally, however, this tremendous torment was not enough for the cruel Decepticon leader, so with all the care of someone crushing an ant, he placed one monstrous foot on the vulnerable Autobot's body and _leaned_ all of his tremendous weight on his chassis….

The shot fired from Ironhid's canon was fierce enough to turn it red hot, and Ratchet couldn't remember a time when someone had ever gotten Bluestreak angry enough to shoot them. Somehow, though, Megatron managed. It was beyond the medic how the Decepticon had planned to get away with something like that without being fired on, but he was apparently taken by surprise as with a bellow he staggered back.

This triggered a fusillade of infuriated shots from the Autobot side, fired by Transformers and humans alike. The barrage didn't last long, however, when Megatron finally gave the much anticipated command to his forces.

"Decepticons! Retreat!"

They needed no further encouragement and turned tail as fast as they could. Before anyone could pursue them, Optimus' voice rang over the general frequency.

_'Let them leave.'_

He had scarcely given this order before Ratchet cut in with a snarl, _'_No one_ even _touch_ Prowl until I get there.'_

Having given his fierce command and cut off the connection before anyone could protest he turned to his companion, who was giving him a rather wary look.

"Take Sunstreaker to the medbay, Wheeljack will do fine stabilizing him on his own, then come immediately to help me transport Prowl."

Ironhide hesitated, "Ratchet, you-"

The medic cut him off, "Yes, I know I'm leaking energon, Ironhide. It's nothing serious, now _go_."

The weapon's specialist gave him a skeptical look and glanced pointedly down at the massive, exposed hole in the medic's chest. Ratchet vented a frustrated sigh and looked around rapidly until he saw the mini-twins approaching. Mudflap was walking even more awkwardly than usual, but Skids looked relatively unscathed, so he beckoned for them to approach.

"Skids, come with me, Mudflap may accompany Ironhide back to the medbay," he snapped in a tone that clearly stated no one was to argue with him if they valued their lives as they were.

Without waiting for a reply he turned and stalked off, though some of the affect was lost with his heavy limp. The twins stared in bewilderment for a moment.

"Uh…okay," Skids muttered, throwing his brother an almost apologetic look before following the medic unsteadily.

Ironhide watched the duo wander off, a very awkward looking pair to be sure, and was not comforted in the least. The medic, however, would not be swayed, so with an annoyed huff he turned and strode back towards the medbay, the little red twin tottering along behind him.

Across the field, the awkward couple of 'Bots continued on, Skids' shuffling steps barely enough to keep up with Ratchet's much longer, if unsteady, paces.

"Sos…uh, Doc, where's we goin'?" he panted loudly.

Ratchet glanced down at the little bot, ever so slightly adjusting his strides to accommodate the green twin, "To help Prowl."

Skids tilted his head, "Prowl? Ain't he dat guy Mega-head was wavin' 'round?"

"Yes."

The small mech gave an uncomfortable thrum, "Um, den is 'e, uh…ya know-"

"He is still online."

"Ah."

And that was the extent of the uncomfortable conversation. Skids had never been seen as one of the more intelligent mechs, but he was smart enough to see when someone was about to keel over from energy loss and overstress to their systems. Ratchet was very near that point, and Skids watched him carefully, fully intent on yelling for assistance if anything happened. What? It wasn't like he could really catch the bulky medic if he fell over. Thus he paid close attention to every minute grimace, twitch, and stumble, hoping to at least be given some forewarning of any impending disaster.

When the medic stopped suddenly he nearly had a panic attack though.

Ratchet glared at the worried look Skids was giving him and waved him off, concentrating on the words pouring over his comm.

_'Uh, Doc you should really hurry cuz Prowl is looking really really bad and I'm right next to him and I can barely register his signal and I don't know what to do since you said not to even touch him but he's leaking energon all over and it's not stopping and it looks really bad so I wish you would get here really soon,'_ Bluestreak's voice was colored by a distinct level of panic, lumping his words together and interrupting the flow (or tsunami) with bursts of static and electronic babble.

Ratchet cycled his vents and started forward again, _'I'm almost there Bluestreak. You may try to stop some of the worst leaks, but don't move him at all, do you understand?'_

_'Yes sir!'_

To his relief, the young gunner said nothing more for once, because frankly, though his voice portrayed calm and control, inside Ratchet was absolutely terrified for the second-in-command. Every bot who adopted the doorwing model was placed at high risk for pain related deactivation, and adding such intense trauma to the already highly stressed systems was going to mean he had to work fast. Which made him even more thankful that he took only another minute to reach the fallen soldier's side.

Skid's let out a high pitched buzz of distress at the sight of another Cybertronian so maimed, and Ratchet shooed him away quickly before coming to kneel with a pained hiss next to the tactician. Opposite him, Bluestreak looked up in concern.

"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly.

Ratchet cut him off before he could continue, "To be honest, I'm in quite a bit of pain, Bluestreak, but that isn't important right now."

"You-you're sparking."

Ratchet glanced down at his chassis and winced when sure enough he saw the little flickers of light, "It's okay for now, now let me work."

Bluestreak squeaked slightly but said no more.

He was already looking intently at Prowl's battered frame. His doorwings were absolutely in shreds, his armor crumbled and shattered, buckling inward where Megatron's foot had laid most of its weight. Two puncture wounds from the tremendously sharp talons ran straight through his shoulder plating. Energon, lubricant, and coolants poured steadily from everywhere, sparks danced in his chest compartment, and smoke spiraled lazily up from his chassis. He was splayed awkwardly on his back as though when Megatron had fallen backwards he had sort of kicked the vulnerable mech.

Running scan after frantic scan, Ratchet ever so gently grasped Prowl's shoulders and rolled him slowly onto his back, careful to not slosh around any of the energon he knew was most likely pooling in the tactician's spark chamber. He looked closer at the horribly disfigured back panels, and then softly pressed one out of the way to allow him a better view of his back. A weak moan escaped Prowl's vocalize at the touch, and Ratchet stopped his ministrations to slip around to the front of his patient.

"Prowl, can you hear me?"

The tactician's body shuddered, "'atchet?"

"That's right, it's me Prowl. Now, I need you to go into stasis, do you understand?" Even as he said it, Ratchet was fiddling with some wiring at the side of Prowl's helm, to prevent a full stasis lock.

The black and white's dim optics flickered brighter for an instant, "No…tell Iron-Ironh-hide."

Ratchet narrowed his optics, "Tell Ironhide what?"

"He…n-next. 'Cep-Ceptic-cons hunt…offi-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-" the vocalizer glitch was severe enough that Ratchet gently shut off the small component.

It took a moment, but several puzzle pieces suddenly fell beautifully into place, and Ratchet gripped his friend's shoulder, "I understand, Prowl. Now go into stasis, you won't feel so much."

Not needing anymore encouragement, the tactician's systems shifted into a light stasis. Ratchet just hoped it wasn't for the last time.

* * *

Optimus was feeling tremendously disconcerted at this point. First, Jazz had been brutally murdered because of his own poor timing, then Ratchet had nearly died right under their olfactory sensors, and now…he may have just watched his brother crush the very life out of one of his oldest friends. If that wasn't enough, even with Ratchet apparently back online, things were not looking up for the Autobots with these new developments.

This was giving him the creator of all processor aches.

He sent a frustrated scan for signals out around the area. Signal cloaks were an on and off obsession of the Decepticons, thankfully every time someone had managed to find a way of detecting the cloaks themselves, thus making them completely useless. _Someone_ usually being Wheeljack. Unfortunately, said engineer was currently preoccupied.

How had he said to do it, anyways?

Optimus rumbled darkly and heightened his sensors, calibrating them for the disrupted energy waves that surrounded a cloaking field. It was unlikely they would use the same ruse twice, but maybe they thought the Autobots wouldn't try to detect something they had already used. So he widened the scanning range, slowly searching for even the smallest blip.

He vented a sigh, this wasn't going to wo- what the slag was that?

Another scan flashed over the place he had detected the tiny inconsistency. Sure enough, there it was again. Scarcely perceptible…but there. The Prime smiled slowly; Starscream's design was nearly flawless, but nothing was perfect.

* * *

_Lizard: What am I writing anymore? We've totally shifted gears here....rats. Oh well, it's fun._

_...my finger is bleeding, I think I'm going to go fix that. But first, I'd like to thank everyone who has read and reviewed this story! You guys are all the best! I've been trying to reply more often, but as you can all tell, I'm still not always so good at that. So I'm letting you all know that even if I don't write it, I'm very appreciative!_

_One more thing...read my sister's story. All of you. It's mostly OCs, but it's building up to a story that's not, and it has _Sunstreaker_ *waggles eyebrows* Why did I do that? ...Anyways, I'll be writing a chapter for it too at...some point in time. Yeah. *cough*_

_Frog: *glares* You had BETTER write it!!!!_

_Lizard: meh, whatever._

_Once again, thank you all!!!!_

_LIZARD OUT_


	11. Chapter 11

_Lizard: *Checks last update date* Hmm…looks like about three weeks? Eh, could be worse…_

_Annoying voice in the back of Lizard's head: Could be better though…_

_Lizard: …………BE SILENT!!!!_

_Yeah, about the delay…midterms this week, and the past one or two have been "review." The teachers have decided to "prepare" us. That is: Pre-pare (pir-pair) v. 1) To give excessive amounts of work in the hopes of causing mental and occasionally physical exhaustion to lessen chances of optimal performance and reduce the possibility of success._

_The good news is I only have to take two midterms!! So I'll have most of this week off!_

_As of…now…_Manic_ is on hiatus. Maybe I'll pick it up again, maybe not. Right now it's not working though, so that's that. Sorry if anyone is disappointed by this…I just can't get anything to work for me with it._

_Yeah…on with the story?_

_Disclaimer: If you can't tell their not mine…well they aren't._

* * *

"What do you think?"

Ratchet barely glanced up at Ironhide when the colossal mech joined him and Bluestreak around their prone 2ndIC, "I don't think there's a single energon line in his body that isn't nicked, slashed, torn, or completely ruptured. And that's not counting all the damage to his systems and frame," the medic looked up briefly, seeming to gauge Ironhide's physical condition before continuing, "Get something flat to carry him on. I need him in the medbay."

The weapon's specialist rumbled in response, already turning to search for a suitable stretcher.

"Oh, and Ironhide? Watch out, he said something about the Decepticons hunting officers, and as far as they know, you're the only one left."

He spoke calmly and professionally, exactly like a medic should. No way was he letting anyone know how tremendously overwhelmed he was at this current moment. Nope, he was _calm._

Ironhide's heavy footsteps paused as he seemed to consider this, before the black mech simply grunted and continued on his way.

Bluestreak shifted uneasily across from Ratchet, optics flitting here and there, avoiding only the sight of his wounded mentor, "C-can I help?"

The medic didn't even look up, merely reaching up to guide the gunner's hand to one of the energon lines in Prowl's chassis, ignoring the younger's squeamish squeak, "Put your hand here and hold this line shut while I patch it."

"Uh…y-yes sir."

He held perfectly still and was remarkably quiet despite having his faceplates turned away from the gory sight. Ratchet didn't comment, too immersed in his frantic work. He had seen worse, but those had never ended well, so frankly he wasn't finding much comfort in that thought. Of course, his own chest wound appeared to have been quite serious, but that wasn't nearly so widespread, so the two really couldn't be compared….

A cough-like sound ripped through Prowl's frame, and blue liquid sprayed from several vent openings in his armor, as well as his mouthplates.

Bluestreak's helm swung back around to stare wide-opticed at the battered tactician, "What happened?"

Ratchet didn't respond at first, having turned from what he had been doing to look at an object deep in Prowl's lower chassis, "He's venting energon."

"What's that mean?"

"It means," the medic cycled a puff of air and lightly tapped the object he had turned to, scans complete, "that his cooling system has been compromised, energon is leaking in somewhere, probably here, as well as in some of the shafts."

"What is that?"

"Central fan and heat sink, cools him off."

"Is that bad?"

"You mean that it's damaged? Yes, Bluestreak, I'd say that's bad."

The gunner flinched and shrank back, but Ratchet didn't have time to regret the callous words, because in truth he was sparing the young mech. Yes it looked bad, but in reality it was much worse. Prowl had only a few earth hours, at most, and Ironhide was taking his dear sweet time.

_''Hide, I would really like for him to be in the medbay right now, think you can get him there anytime soon?'_

_'I'm coming,'_ the weapon's specialist growled back irritably.

Ratchet grunted and shifted, "Are you damaged, Bluestreak?"

The gunner looked up in surprise, "No, why? Is something wrong? Should-"

"I need you to help Ironhide carry Prowl. I would as well, but…," he trailed off with a grimace and slowly staggered to his feet when Ironhide came up behind him, dragging a large sheet of metal.

"This work?" the large mech rumbled.

Ratchet nodded, not bothering to use his vocalizer, which was starting to ache from being out of use for so long, and now being tossed into heavy work.

Rolling Prowl onto the makeshift stretcher was rather disquieting, Ratchet's sensors picking up the swish of liquid in his patient's spark chamber. He watched the two functioning mech's movements carefully, frustrated at his own inability to assist them. Unexpectedly a spike of pain shot from his chest compartment through his entire torso, and his intakes hitched. Ironhide froze and looked over his shoulder at the medic, optics narrowed, and on the other side, Bluestreak looked worried that they may soon have two offline officers to transport to the medbay.

"I'm fine," Ratchet growled, though some of the affect was lost with his rasping vocalizer and twitching faceplates.

Ironhide rumbled, "Go. Now."

The CMO scowled, "I'm not leaving a seriously damaged patient-"

"He's in good hands. The hard part's done; we'll be right behind you."

Ratchet scowled, but it quickly turned to a pained grimace as yet another stab went through his body. Bluestreak's optics widened.

"Uh, Doc? You're leaking…."

The medic looked down, faceplates twisting. Sure enough, energon was now steadily streaming from a main line and dribbling down his armor plating. The hole was giving off a steady ache now, signaling the steady rise of neural sensors in his torso coming back online.

Did Primus hate him?

"Get him there as soon as possible, and don't jostle him at all, if anything happens," at this point Ironhide quirked an optic ridge, prompting a dirty glare from his old friend, "Call _Wheeljack _to come help."

A look of approval passed the ancient black mech's face, and Ratchet all but sneered back at him, even as Bluestreak nodded rapidly, optics still glued to the steadily growing flow of energon. The medic turned and started limping across the field, trusting Ironhide to handle transporting a wounded; he had done it enough times before. He had only made it a short way, however, before he realized he wasn't going to make it back on his own.

"Slaggit," he muttered under his breath, pausing to briefly weld what he could see of his own cut line.

It took him a moment to realize the world was tipping drastically to the side, and by the time he did it was too late to stop his fall. Thankfully, Optimus was faster.

"Steady, old friend," the Prime's deep voice rumbled lightly, masking his concern.

Ratchet snorted and at first tried to regain his own balance, only to realize this was obviously not an option, and he surrendered to leaning heavily on his leader, though he let his displeasure be known.

"Frag off."

Optimus choked back some rather inappropriate laughter at his CMO's immaturity, it was obvious Ratchet was humiliated at being so degraded, not to mention agitated at his own helplessness in caring for his patients, "I apologize, but there is something we must discuss."

"Oh?"

Ratchet didn't sound at all interested as they started forward again, with Optimus very carefully gripping the other mech's shoulder to keep him upright, and Ratchet alternating between stumbling along on his own and practically being dragged by his younger albeit taller companion.

"The energy cloak seems to be one used by the Decepticons in the past. I ran some long range scans under the parameters specified by Wheeljack several vorns ago…."

Ratchet snorted, "That's ridiculous. Starscream is an idiot, yes, but he's a smart idiot."

Optimus thrummed softly, "I believe that would be called an oxymoron."

"It's true though. I don't see how he could make that mistake."

Optimus tilted his head in thought, guiding his friend around some more hazardous rubble (much to Ratchet's annoyance), "Perhaps he believed that we would think it too unlikely that he would reuse the same coding as a cloak."

Ratchet grunted in agreement, "Reverse psychology, the human's call it."

"Indeed. I sent Bumblebee to investigate the signal."

Before Ratchet could respond, another voice butted in, this one overflowing with agitation, "I _told_ you not to overdo it, slaggit!"

Ratchet rolled his optics but relented to Wheeljack's forceful scanning and rapid examination. The engineer looked frazzled and exhausted, probably hadn't had this much practice in several vorns, and it was showing.

"Wheeljack," Optimus acknowledged with an dip of his helm as he stepped back to let the smaller mech take over, "I trust you have everything under control here?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it."

The Autobot leader nodded and turned away, optics scanning the nearby hills.

_'Bumblebee, have you found anything?' _he called through a private link.

There was a pause and a brief burst of static before the response came, _'Yes sir. Laserbeak was patrolling around the perimeter. I fired, but only grazed her tail plates.'_

Optimus allowed himself a small smile, _'Well done. I will inform the others of this.'_

So he had been right. Perfect.

* * *

"Wheeljack…."

"No, you are _not_ working anymore! You are _resting _or Primus help me I'm welding you to the fragging table!!"

Ratchet quirked an unimpressed optic ridge at the outburst, "You need my help, 'Jack."

He was remaining abnormally calm, perhaps it was because Wheeljack had already taken the part of furious-bordering-on-violent mech. Still, he was as stubborn as Pit and no one was telling him what to do in _his_ medbay.

"No! You are-"

A shrieking alarm cut the engineer off, and his optics widened briefly before he rushed to Sunstreaker's table with a snarl of his systems. Ratchet's faceplates twisted in concern and frustration, and with skilled hands he prepared and injected a pain killer into his own arm before limping over to join the other. Wheeljack didn't have time to protest as he rapidly connected a spark restarter to the yellow warrior's laser core.

One shock, Sunstreaker's frame lurched awkwardly, and the monitor next to his berth showed a shuddering spark pulse, which slowly returned to a safer, though not nearly healthy rate. Wheeljack vented heavily and finally turned to look at the CMO, who was busy examining Sunstreaker's spark chamber.

"Third time, it's not holding," the engineer muttered.

Ratchet hm'ed softly, "Take care of that broken armor, it's just getting in the way, then move on to the cut lines in his shoulder."

As he spoke a fine welder slid out of the back of his hand and he carefully started making the minute repairs on Sunstreaker's spark chamber and laser core. Wheeljack's systems rumbled in resignation and he turned immediately to the task given him. Until, that is, he heard Sideswipe start stirring.

"Oh Primus…." The engineer looked over his shoulder at the silver twin.

Ratchet glanced up as well, "He's still going to be unstable…hopefully not quite as much. I expect more along the lines of emotionally vulnerable."

"So…meltdown?"

"Safe bet."

Wheeljack grimaced and sidled up next to the warrior mech, warily glancing down at the still drawn blades, "Alright, Sideswipe, can you hear me?"

There was a low, uncomfortable thrum deep in Sideswipe's chassis and his optics flickered dully online, gradually building in luminosity, "Ow…."

_'He's confused…try not to let him see his brother,' _Ratchet sent swiftly, and Wheeljack moved his broad frame between the twins.

Sideswipe, however, was not so easily deterred, and he pushed himself upright, turning dazed optics on the inventor, "Wh-where'd Sunny go?"

Wheeljack just carefully pressed the unbalanced mech back against the berth, "Resting. You can see him later."

Sideswipe narrowed his optics, but looked more frightened than angry, "No…he was hurt," his optics widened again, "Wheeljack, where is he?!"

_'Oh, slag, he's panicking….'_

_'No escaping it now,' _Ratchet muttered dryly, but his sympathy for the young silver mech wasn't well masked.

"Please let me see him?" Sideswipe had grabbed Wheeljack's arm and was shaking him slightly, "I've gotta see him!"

An alarm suddenly burst to life, and Ratchet's voice could barely be heard above it, cursing in every language in his databanks.

Sideswipe's optics widened even further, and he bolted to his feet, knocking Wheeljack out of the way, "Sunstreaker?!"

He was next to his brother in a flash, panic written all over his faceplates. Ratchet reached across the yellow mech's chassis and tried to push the Corvette away so he could use the spark restarter, but Sideswipe's rational side had gone and he was not leaving his twin's side.

"Frag it, let go of his arm, Sideswipe!" Ratchet snarled, too shaky to do much physically.

"Nonono, Sunny you can't leave me again, I just got you back, you can't leave again," Sideswipe's broken rambling was interrupted occasionally by hitched intakes and garbled electronic babble.

Wheeljack felt sympathy and distress well in his spark at the pitiful sight, but once he had managed to stagger back to his feet from Sideswipe's rough shove, he wrapped both arms around the distraught mech and dragged him away long enough for Ratchet to shock Sunstreaker once…and again…and again….

_Oh Primus,_ the thought rose in his processor that they may have been forced to wait too long, but just as soon he shoved it back down.

Vaguely he registered the sound of the medbay doors being kicked open and a startled rumble of old systems. Moments later, the frantically kicking and squirming Sideswipe was pulled away from Wheeljack's rapidly failing grasp.

"Calm down, fragger," Ironhide growled.

Wheeljack gave him a grateful look, before rushing to Ratchet's side just as the medic gave the crashing mech yet another shock, a continual stream of muttered curses coming from his vocalizer.

"Ratchet…."

"If you say he's gone, slaggit, I'll weld your glossa to your vocalizer. I don't need any clichés," the medic snapped.

Wheeljack winced but didn't respond, merely opting to watch the monitor tensely. Another shock…and a blip. Everything went silent as there was a pause…and another blip. Slowly, surely the pulse regained a bit of strength, and a collective hiss went through those watching as their tense frames and hydraulics relaxed. Except for Sideswipe, who was far from lucid enough to care, but also being crushed enough by Ironhide's grip that he wasn't screeching anymore.

There was a moment of relieved silence until Ratchet lifted his helm, optics blazing even though he was relying totally on the berth in front of him to remain standing, "Everyone who can walk, _get out of my medbay._"

Yelling Ratchet was scary. Quietly growling Ratchet? Dangerous.

Thus both Ironhide and Bluestreak withdrew rapidly.

Ratchet turned to Sideswipe, who had returned to standing shakily next to his brother the moment he was released, "Go to your berth Sideswipe."

He spoke calmly, like to a sparkling, but gave Wheeljack a meaningful look without turning his faceplates from the unstable twin.

"N-no, I'm not leaving Sunny," Sideswipe protested, wild optics looking everywhere yet at nothing constantly.

Thankfully, he was too busy being stubborn to notice Wheeljack until he had already injected a more powerful sedative into his energon lines. He collapsed almost immediately, the engineer catching him before he could smash painfully into the ground.

"That was too close," Wheeljack muttered once he had safely returned the twin to a berth, this time with restraints, as much as it pained him to use them.

Ratchet thrummed slightly in agreement, but was now examining Prowl's shattered body where Bluestreak and Ironhide had layed it, "Get me an artificial ventilator for Prowl from that back room and see if you can't find something to stabilize Sunstreaker's spark. I'll need energon drips on both of them, Prowl as soon as his lines can handle it."

Wheeljack nodded briskly and headed into the room indicated. To his surprise though, he found it wasn't a storage room, it was a private recovery room, well lit and clean, and it was occupied.

"Uh…Ratch?"

Ratchet didn't reply besides a short grunt.

Wheeljack stared for a moment at the body of what had been perhaps the most exuberant mech ever created lying in the middle of the room. What was he supposed to ask? He shook himself sharply: now wasn't the time to mourn the dead, not when he was trying to save the living...and the one keeping the living alive.

"Never mind."

And he grabbed the requested equipment, giving only a respectful nod to Jazz as he left.

Maybe later.

* * *

_Lizard: Hey guess what?! I've just passed the 50th page on this!!! Exciting! In fact, with this note, it's exactly 51 pages!!_

_That last part with Jazz was just kinda thrown in. He sort of disappeared for a long time, so I just thought I'd let everyone know he's still there. And in my mind Laserbeak is a girl. Cuz I said so. The name's kinda girly. So yeah._

_Khe…I almost killed Sunny! And I gave his brother an emotional breakdown!__ Yay for torturing favorite characters!!! :D_

_Anywho… I have Christmas break coming up, so….hopefully updating soon? Unless everything get's all hectic, which is entirely possible. I'll try though._

_Frog: And my story too *makes sad pathetic puppy face* I promise I'll let that one guy you like live if you do!!!_

_Lizard: *eye twitch* You're bribing me with someone's life!!! Cruel evil mean sister.....*grumbling*_

_Anyways, review please! And thanks to you all!_

_LIZARD OUT_


	12. Chapter 12

_Lizard: 5 days!!! 5 fragging days!!! It's a miracle!!! Okay, though, this is a really short chapter, but I had to do it. Look at it as an early Christmas present._

_This is a lot more light-hearted and a bit different from the rest of the story, and it's got Ironhide. _Lot's_ of Ironhide. :)_

_I had way too much fun with this. I'm doing _smilies_ I'm so happy! :D_

_Oh, and remember that story I took the poll about....it's up! Yay! "_The Healing of Harms,"_ I have Frog to thank for the title. Who, by the way, is writing an awesome story in this section, as I have mentioned before, and you should all read._

_Anyways, on with the story!_

* * *

Major Lennox looked up from his conversation with Sam, Mikaela, and Sergeant Epps, when he saw his family's twenty foot guardian stride in slowly, "Hey buddy, how's it going?"

Ironhide rumbled darkly, "The Decepticons have been using a cloaking technology from early in the war. Now that we know, we have the upper hand, but it doesn't make it any less…."

"Frustrating that you didn't find it out sooner?" the man offered, which earned him a glare, "Hey, admit it, I know how you think."

The Cybertronian snorted, or at least something like it, "Perhaps in some areas."

"How are the others doing? You know, the ones who were…hurt," Mikaela spoke up somewhat hesitantly.

Ironhide vented heavily, "Ratchet stayed online long enough to help stabilize them, then fell into stasis lock himself. Currently Wheeljack says Sunstreaker and Ratchet will recover, Prowl is still in danger of deactivation," he knelt down in front of them, "The danger for you is over. The Decepticon's were specifically trying to kill of the officers in an attempt to weaken the Autobot's morale, if nothing else. You may return to your residences whenever you are ready, however I am not to accompany any of you until we are certain I am no longer a target."

He did _not_ sound pleased at this, which meant it had probably become an order. Lennox grinned up at him, trying not to sound worried.

"You sure you'll be okay then, buddy? I mean, I know you could single-handedly hand their afts to them all on a silver platter, but if they're so tricky…."

Ironhide rumbled again, "Do not worry about me, Major Lennox. Wheeljack, Optimus and I have an idea of how to dissuade the Decepticons from such attacks in the future."

He sounded _way_ too happy at that prospect, which probably meant it was better not to ask.

* * *

"Wheeljack, are you _certain_ this will only explode when we want it to?" Optimus's deep voice resonated through the medbay, and Wheeljack's makeshift lab.

The engineer waved a hand dismissively, "Positive. I made sure to-"

"You're _sure?_"

Wheeljack rumbled in exasperation at Ironhide's interruption, "Yes, I'm sure."

"In other words it will probably explode early."

"_No_, it won't explode until I tell it to!"

"Yeah right."

"Mechs!" Optimus interrupted in agitation, "We don't have time for immature arguments," he turned back to face just Wheeljack, "If you are certain all will go as planned, then begin making preparations."

The engineer cycled his vents then shook his helm as though to clear it, "You got it."

He turned around and headed back to work, while Optimus guided Ironhide out of the building.

"Is it really necessary to antagonize him?" the Prime asked his ancient friend wearily.

Ironhide rumbled in amusement, "Helps him unwind. The fragger's been running himself as hard as Ratch. Think about it, have you ever seen Wheeljack so disagreeable?'

Optimus thrummed, "No, but you're taunting is certainly not helping matters."

The weapons specialist just chuckled at that and shook his head. Nothing could really get him in a bad mood right now. He was going to get to blow stuff up. "Stuff" being Decepticons. So really, why would he be mad about anything?

His leader shook his helm in mild exasperation, "I believe you have preparations to attend to as well."

Ironhide grinned but took the hint and wandered off to find Bumblebee, Bluestreak, and an almost completely recovered Sideswipe. Apparently his giddiness was getting in the way of Optimus' brooding. Oh well, he could live with that.

* * *

Bluestreak looked up from cleaning his sniper rifle to see a much too happy looking Ironhide approaching. Now, he had learned a few things in the war, and one of them was when the weapons specialist was coming towards you looking happy, you should run. Too bad he as cornered.

_Aw frag…._

"Bluestreak, you're coming with me," the enormous black mech ordered briskly, "Bring your gun, and extra ammunition."

Well, it could have been worse. Wheeljack could have been involved.

"We're helping with a plan of Wheeljack's."

Bluestreak really hated his life right now.

* * *

"Bumblebee! Come with me, we have work to do!" Ironhide bellowed through the main NEST building.

The yellow and black Camaro looked up and his optics widened. Ironhide was smirking evilly and spinning his cannons. That was bad. Very very bad.

"_I'm kinda busy here…."_ An unfamiliar voice pointed out from the radio and Bumblebee indicated his two human charges.

Ironhide waved a hand dismissively, "Arcee can take care of them until you are finished."

Okay, maybe getting out of this would be harder than he thought….

"_I have…plans…tonight…gotta go…right now,"_ he tried again.

Ironhide did not look convinced, "We have more important things to do. And why aren't you using your vocalizer?"

"_The doctor said no more monkeys jumping on the bed."_

That earned an eruption of laughter from any of the humans within hearing range, but Bumblebee didn't care.

The weapon's specialist quirked an optic ridge, "I assume you mean Ratchet told you not to overdo it. Really, couldn't you just use the comm.?"

'_Yeah, but where's the fun in that?'_ he chirped back.

Ironhide rolled his optics and grabbed the young mech by his back plating, "No more excuses, you're coming with me."

* * *

Sideswipe wasn't in a good mood. He hadn't been since the battle, and he wouldn't be until his brother came back online. But that wasn't stopping Ironhide.

'_Sideswipe, get your miserable aft over here!'_ he rumbled darkly through the comm.

There was no response, which probably meant the twin was moping. Ironhide supposed that was understandable, but really he didn't have time for such insubordinate acts. Fortunately for Sideswipe he was in too good a mood to let that spoil his fun. Unfortunately for Sideswipe…he wasn't going to let that spoil his fun.

So only a few Earth minutes later, the black Topkick rolled up to where Sideswipe was moping by himself in the hills. The silver Corvette didn't even turn around at the sound of a transformation, nor when he felt Ionhide's mighty presence come up behind him.

He couldn't _help _but respond, however, when a giant hand wrapped around the back of his neck and pulled him to his feet.

"Hey! Get the slag away from me!"

Sideswipe squirmed and tried to pry the thick digits off, but failed miserably in that endeavor.

Ironhide's engine growled warningly, "I gave you a direct order, soldier, now get up and get rolling."

The younger warrior's systems snarled with menace, "Frag off, ya old-"

"Finish that sentence," Ironhide rumbled, activating the canon on the arm he was holding Sideswipe with.

The squirming mech was silent.

"That's what I thought. Now get going. Just think, this is your chance to slag the ones who hurt your brother," he reminded.

He pushed the mech over towards the road and watched in satisfaction as he transformed into his sleek vehicle mood, despite some grumbling. The weapon's specialist transformed as well and led the way back to the base where they would begin work on their master plan.

This was going to be good.

* * *

_Lizard: Oh yes it is.... *evil cackle*_

_I don't like the humans a whole lot. I don't _dis_like them, I just am more interested in giant alien robots. So I didn't really like the section with them, but whatever. Except, I do like Major Lennox and Sergeant Epps, cuz they amuse me. :)_

_Don't forget to read "_The Healing of Harms"_ (the story from the poll for those who weren't paying attention) and my sister's story!_

_REVIEW!!!_

_LIZARD OUT_


	13. Chapter 13

_Lizard: I hate my life. I typed out almost this entire chapter, loved how it came out, and what happens? My computer _**eats**_ it! Seriously, it's gone. Completely. So I had to rewrite the entire thing. Yeah, sucks to be me._

_Anyways, this chap…There is very little dialogue except at the end. It's mostly an action chapter, not a talking chapter. So no stupidity from me on that front. I don't know what's going on in this story anymore. I really hate it. Terrible story, terrible, it needs to go die now. Thank goodness it's almost over._

_Yeah, enough angsting on my part, here's the chapter, take two…_

_Disclaimer: If I owned TF I wouldn't be so depressed. But Hasbro and other people own it. Thus they are happy, and I…am sad :'(_

* * *

Bluestreak pulled continuous, even intakes, releasing the air steadily, and clinging to this constant flow of air and sound as a sort of anchor. The gunner was in his element, tense, yet relaxed, body splayed low across the ground, fully aware of everything, yet knowing nothing but his aim. He stared intently down the length of his sniper rifle, optics fully focused on his target. It was a tiny speck as far as targets go, but for Bluestreak it wasn't much of a challenge. Except for one tiny little detail.

His "target" was a small crevice in Ironhide's back plating, rather than any of the multiple Decepticons standing in front of his superior officer.

Twitch.

Grimace.

The young gunner shook himself minutely. Focus. Focus was key. Just like Prowl had taught him back on Cybertron. No, no don't think about Prowl. Prowl was fine. Focus. On Ironhide…slag. This was not going to be easy.

Bluestreak took one long intake, drawing the air in to cool off his internal workings. He forced himself to relax his back and shoulder cables, and set his mouthplates in a grim line. The mission hinged on his precision, so by Primus he would be precise. Behind him there was a low, foreboding rumble, something Bumblebee had said came with storms on this planet. A bitter smile touched the young mech's lip components; how appropriate.

With unnaturally steady servos he perfected his aim, lining the barrel up perfectly.

He was ready.

* * *

Ironhide wanted to kill something. Really bad. And now. Right now. It didn't matter that that would blow the whole mission; he was going to explode in about two more kliks if Starscream didn't _shut up_.

The Decepticon Air commander had been preening and strutting for almost fifteen earth minutes, gloating over his "victory" over the "so-called undefeatable" Autobot weapons specialist. This entire time Ironhide's expression had been walking the fine line of broken and defiant. It was surprisingly difficult to balance looking like an old, battle weary mech who had given up, and yet still look like the defiant Autobot soldier he was, and all at once hold perfectly still for Bluestreak. Ironhide never claimed to be much of an actor, but apparently Starscream was buying into it.

There were ten drones, their unnaturally bright optics casting them all in an eerie red glow. Why so many? Ironhide hadn't the slightest clue. He felt flattered that they thought him enough of a threat to spare so many for his "capture," but ten drones and two Seekers seemed like overkill for the arrogant Starscream. Then again…Skywarp, who had bolted the klik things went to Pit in the last battle, easily escaping their makeshift brig, looked uncharacteristically tense and murderous, still sore from his third wingmate's demise. At Ironhide's hands. Oh.

Huh, maybe Decepticons did have some capacity to care.

Ironhide was brought out of his musings by the realization that Starscream's rambling was starting to wind down. No time to wonder at the ethics of killing a member of a Seeker trine now, he had work to do. With solemn finality, the large black mech shut off his comm. link and subtly braced himself for what was to come.

* * *

Sideswipe's engine thrummed with anticipation and barely contained rage. He couldn't see the rendezvous point, but his sensors were carefully set to focus on that location. This combined with Ironhide's open comm. link gave him everything he needed to coordinate the strike. Bumblebee and Bluestreak had been rather nervous about letting the titanic weapons specialist go solo into enemy hands, but Sideswipe had no such concerns. The plan was flawless, nothing could go wrong…Sunny would tell him at this point that he was a glitch and something could always go wrong.

But Sunny wasn't here. So he would just have to hold conversations with himself in his processor. That probably wasn't healthy, but hey, he was still recovering from a complete fritz, he could act crazy if he wanted to.

Ironhide's comm., turned up so they could all catch both sides of the conversation, abruptly shut off and Sideswipe's cables tightened and his wiring burned with the rapid fire of intense energy. He could hear thunder approaching and dark, ominous clouds rose over them. A single rain drop hit his silver hood and slid slowly down the sleek metal. He opened a link with Bluestreak and Bumblebee.

_'Show time.'_

* * *

At Sideswipe's simple command, Bluestreak squeezed the trigger. He relished the familiar feeling of his rifle bucking back into his shoulder, and the sharp crack that emanated from the weapon. As had always been the case for the sniper, time briefly slowed down. The shot went pure and true, straight between two heavy black panels on Ironhide's back, and instantly in response an explosion engulfed the mech and five of the drones standing a bit too close. The light of it lit up the dark landscape, and its bellowing boom was answered with a tremendous roar from the clouds and a sudden downpour.

From his far off vantage point, Bluestreak could just barely see the temporary force field rippling around Ironhide's frame, hugging as close to his armor as paint. The blazing inferno died down almost too quickly to thoroughly enjoy, doused by the rain, and with it went the force field, meant only to last long enough to protect Ironhide from becoming a pile of scrap metal. As the shield dropped, Ironhide took full advantage of the complete, debilitating shock that had overcome the Seekers and lifted two brand-spankin'-new cannons, because, of course, no plan is complete without those.

The muffled _thwump_ of the cannons was soon harmonized by a rapid barrage of shots, and screeching metal as Sideswipe and Bumblebee swooped in from either side, having remained out of sight beneath rocky outcroppings and boulders, and out of sensor range with the very cloaking programs Starscream had used against the Autobots. Bluestreak jumped up and strained his optics to see through the sheets of falling water. The lights of explosions, thrusters, and optics reflected among the water droplets, creating the most remarkable and deadly light show the young mech had ever witnessed, and, almost as quickly as it had started, it was over.

Starscream, with a piercing shriek reminiscent of his name, abruptly took off, Skywarp directly behind him. The drones were left unceremoniously to fall quickly and carelessly to the Autobots. In the clearing where it had all occurred, now marred with craters, scorch marks, and dead drones, Ironhide, Bumblebee and Sideswipe allowed themselves to relax after the brief skirmish's excitement. Sideswipe, grinning impishly, clapped a friendly hand on Bumblebee's shoulder plates, nodding at him. The scout inclined his head in acknowledgement, and looked over at Ironhide, who winced as he rotated his torso. This moment of silence and calm was soon broken, however, by a howling engine coming down the lonely desert road towards them.

Bluestreak screeched up to them, transforming before he had even stopped. He stumbled a bit, waving his arms wildly to catch his balance, before looking up with excited azure optics.

"That was great, you guys should have seen what it looked like from up there! I could see it all, well until this rain came, which kinda startled me, you know, since I'm used to the acid rain, but Bumblebee said the rain here is good, so that was okay-"

"Bluestreak!" Sideswipe snapped.

Bluestreak's mouth components snapped shut and he looked with wide, nervous optics at the silver corvette. Sideswipe continued to glare for a moment, before his faceplates shifted to a slight, friendly grin.

"Nice shot."

The gunner looked surprised for a moment, then grinned back. Ironhide gave a heavy mechanical snort.

"That gun of yours has a kick to it, doesn't it," the enormous mech muttered, still rotating his back supports and plating.

"Uh…Sorry?"

Another sharp snort and the ancient mech just swatted at Bluestreak in mock irritation and turned to Bumblebee.

"Did you complete your part of the mission?" he rumbled sternly.

The yellow scout was immediately the center of their rapt attention, and Bumblebee paused momentarily at their almost pleading looks.

"Yes, the bomb has been planted," he reported using his own scratchy vocalizer.

Sideswipe and Bluestreak both let out a whoop and Ironhide allowed himself a small, satisfied smile. When Bumblebee had dived into the fray he was given the responsibility of placing one final parting gift on Starscream's fuselage, and his success meant the 'Cons would be licking their wounds a bit longer than the Air Commander had probably anticipated.

All in all, it was a good day.

* * *

_So, I'm gone for a month, come back, and give you this lousy little chapter. Yeah. I suck._

_I hope no one was confused by that…I kinda left most of it to the implied area, and sometimes I'm a little too vague, so let me know if there was something you didn't understand so I can hopefully clarify. Oh and…the next chapter, unless something drastic happens, will be the last. Thank you, thank you, I have finally reached the end. I hope you all enjoyed the ride!_

_Anyways, you see that button down there? The one with the green writing? Yeah, that one…you should click it. It makes me happy…and when I'm happy, I don't kill characters…so if I'm not happy….the characters will come get you 0-0_

_They're watching…always watching……_

_LIZARD OUT_


	14. Chapter 14

_Lizard: The most AMAZING thing just happened…I was informed that there are too many spelling or grammatical errors on this stories word document (cumulative of all chapters and most author's notes) for Word to display them anymore! Yeah. It's because all the names and Cybertron words are supposedly misspelled… Still, I didn't realize that's possible! XD So if there are mistakes…it's cuz it's not telling me anymore._

_Anyways, everyone, this is it. My final chapter! It's been a wonderful ride and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as or more than I did! I am so pleased to have finished this, even after countless delays and setbacks, but it's finally done and….yeah, this is starting to sound like an acceptance speech for an award I'll never win. Sorry. I'm a little…hyped._

_I like this chapter, I think it ends nicely, at least in my opinion….I think I might cry, this is just so sad. It's over. :'( How depressing…But the future holds good things for me! I have so many ideas for new fanfics that my head is about to explode! So I shall move on to bigger, better things!_

_Disclaimer: (for the last time in this story…) I do not own Transformers or this story would not exist. It would be a movie for all to love and enjoy. But instead it is a little fanfiction written by a poor young woman in her spare time. Yep people, this is high end entertainment._

* * *

Three months. Not a long time when you lived longer than the stars, but it was still enough time to gain more perspective. And to heal.

Ratchet huffed in satisfaction then quickly replaced the irate scowl on his faceplates before coming around into Sideswipe's line of vision.

"I'm finished, but if you ever slagging do that again I'm not helping," he growled warningly.

The newly repainted mech grinned innocently up at him, armor gleaming a brilliant shade of red, "No worries, that prank's over done anyways," he chirped, bouncing off the berth.

Ratchet glared at him and twirled one of his wrenches meaningfully. Sideswipe, wisely taking the hint, yelped and bolted from the room, nearly running over Jolt in his escape. The blue apprentice turned to watch the retreating mech, and then looked back at his teacher in vague amusement.

"What was it this time?" he asked lightly.

The CMO rumbled, "Simply put, he fragged off Arcee. I won't go into details."

The apprentice medic had to stop himself from laughing his aft off when he was fixed with a threatening look, "I, uh, I'll just go check inventory now."

He grinned as though to appease the volatile medic and made a wide circle around his boss, then scrambled back to the other end of the room, quickly setting about going through the various shelves and drawers. It was a good act of looking busy, though Ratchet was probably not convinced. He didn't have anything else to do though, so maybe that would save him.

There was a heavy whirring sound behind him, evidence of Ratchet's still annoyed state, but thankfully also of his decision not to deactivate the younger mech, "I'm leaving, I'll be back when I feel like it, don't comm. me unless the universe is imploding, and even then only call as a last resort, understood?"

"Yes sir!"

The elder medic grumbled lowly about way to chipper apprentices and why were his always so happy as he stalked moodily out of the makeshift med bay. Jolt glanced back over his shoulder plating and out of habit ran a brief analysis of his teacher's posture and movements. Obviously it was unnecessary, but it still made him feel better to see the improvement in health.

"Cut it out or I'll recalibrate your sensors and you won't like the results!"

Jolt immediately turned back around as though he had never been scanning the CMO, fighting the urge to grin. He never thought he'd be happy to hear Ratchet yell at him, but near-deactivation experiences tended to change one's perspective.

Meanwhile Ratchet was making his way slowly to the warehouse in which the Autobots often spent their free time. For the first time in a while he wasn't taking his time out of necessity but just for the enjoyment of the Earth's cool spring weather and he paused to take in the view of the sun setting behind the distant mountains. He thrummed in a soft, reflective manner; it really was a nice little planet in its own way. Never would it compare to the glory of Cybertron, but for now it was acceptable.

"This planet's atmosphere and orbit provide optimal viewing conditions for its star during the start of the offcycle. It creates an unusual array colors," a voice observed from a black and white police vehicle parked a few meters away, speaking their native language.

Ratchet snorted dryly, "Whatever you say Prowl. Humans just call it a 'sunset' and say it's 'pretty,' but I guess your description is a little more…practical."

Prowls alt mode shuddered slightly in amusement, "Thank you."

The CMO shot him a look, "Not really a compliment, but you're welcome. I'm surprised you're even out here, it's not exactly a logical pastime," he pointed out.

Prowl's systems gave a soft whispering noise not unlike the sound of a human sigh, but the meaning was certainly different. It was a sound of thought and timidity. With some pained hisses and grunts the mech transformed into his bipedal form and rotated his shoulder joints stiffly, giving Ratchet an almost curious look.

"I enjoy peace and quiet to think, and this was the only place currently unoccupied," he started, then continued almost uncertainly, "I was somewhat wondering…what being in stasis that long…is like?"

Ratchet was surprised, Prowl actually looked _shy_. It was…almost cute, and it certainly reminded him how young the second in command actually was. He almost smiled, but settled for a raised optic ridge instead.

"You mean my extended recharge?" Prowl paused, having to translate the sarcasm into his own terms before nodding, and Ratchet shrugged, "I don't remember well, just that it was…calm. And very numb. Though there is something about Ironhide's canons that keeps nagging at me," he muttered the last part almost to himself.

Prowl nodded slowly, thinking this over, and Ratchet's optic were instinctively drawn to the tacticians still raggedly scarred wings. An automatic scan flashed across them, startling Prowl and causing him to nearly jump.

"Healing nicely, but there's still some work that needs to be done. Come to the medbay tomorrow so I can mess with them," he ordered, starting to walk away, "And right now, come with me. I don't recall putting you back on duty, and you don't have anything else to do, so you might as well interact with some of the others."

"Why?"

He rolled his optics, really Prowl could be so dense, "I'm a medic, trust me."

This didn't satisfy the younger mech, he was sure, but the following steps informed him he was being obeyed. He didn't look back at nor speak to his slightly unwilling companion but the walk was quick for the huge strides and their audios soon picked up the sounds of Autobot "recreation." When they entered the room it was the familiar chaos of their base.

It was a slow day, the Decepticons had been quiet lately (surely Ironhide had _nothing_ to do with that…) and everyone, human and Autobot alike, had been given an almost unholy amount of free time. Which meant the mini-twins were brawling, the older twins were arguing, Bluestreak was talking to Ironhide who had turned off his audios some time ago, and Wheeljack was…tinkering. With something that was probably highly explosive.

"'Jack, if that blows up it had better not kill a human," Ratchet growled upon spotting the engineer.

He was given an amused flash of the mech's headfins as a response, "It's not gonna explode, I promise. It's just something I might use on Jazz. Don't give me that look, it'll work."

His friend nodded, "I'll tell Jolt to prep the 'bay for the inevitable loss of one or more of your limbs then."

Wheeljack just expelled a huff of air through his vents and shook his helm with a slight chuckle, "Glad to have ya back, Ratch. I missed the insults."

"You're welcome. I missed giving them."

"Well don't get all sentimental on me now, that would ruin your carefully crafted image of the big bad medic," the engineer chided.

Ratchet collapsed onto the Autobot sized couch next to him and subconsciously rubbed the almost fully healed chest plates where Starscream's shot had nearly deactivated him so recently, "Don't worry, that won't be happening anytime soon."

He regarded the rest of the room's occupants and smirked at the sight of Prowl being figuratively cornered by Bluestreak after the gunner noticed his mentor. Ironhide, seeing his escape quickly vacated his previous seat and joined the two other old timers.

"For such a good shot that mech sure is oblivious," he muttered, taking a swig of energon from his cube, "I pity Prowl."

Wheeljack flashed a look over at the two door winged mechs, "Nah, he likes the kid. It's good for him."

Ratchet nodded, "And for the rest of us. If Bluestreak has a willing audience in Prowl, he has no reason to go to anyone else."

Ironhide laughed, "True, true. I guess we owe Prowl, hm?"

"Mm-hm," Ratchet leaned back and dimmed his optics.

"Tired?" Wheeljack asked lightly, though to the mech he had known since their academy days it was a poor mask of his concern.

"Exhausted if you must know, but that's not unusual it's part of being responsible for those four gremlins," he waved a hand vaguely at the two sets of twins.

Ironhide choked on his energon due to the guffaw that tried to escape his vocalizer, "_Gremlins_?"

Ratchet smirked and briefly onlined his optics again, "English has such amusing words. Gremlin is especially fitting for the miniature twins, don't you think?"

The other two mechs briefly paused in looking up the word before a grin split Ironhide's faceplates and Wheeljack's headfins flashed brightly.

The engineer snickered, "It actually does, perfectly."

"And what are we talking about?" a regal baritone voice joined the conversation.

Ratchet looked lazily over at their leader, "The manic pit-spawns we seem to have a habit of collecting and the English words that describe them."

Optimus eased himself down onto a chair that was honestly a bit too short for him, optics gleaming, "Ah, of course," he gave Ratchet a bit of an appraising look, "It's good to see you back to your old self."

The CMO quirked an optic ridge at him, "Don't even go there. What's past is past. We're done."

Ironhide made an uncomfortable whir, "You almost deactivated, Ratch. That's not one of those things you just forget about."

His friend at first glared at him, but the look softened after a moment, "I didn't say forget, I said move on. Look at Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, they've managed, are you saying the gremlins can do something you can't?" he teased.

Wheeljack grinned slightly while still looking down at his newest device, "Gremlins do something Ironhide can't? That's just not possible," more seriously he added, "He's saying it'll take time, for all of us. And not just about you. I've never seen Sideswipe so protective of Sunstreaker, and Bluestreak hardly leaves Prowl alone. We'll move on as you say, just humor us with our annoying habits of being all worried like a femme creator."

Ratchet gave Wheeljack an unreadable look, "Of course. Just don't overdo it. And if any one of you glitches tries to tell me to rest instead of work again I'll remove your vocalizers and weld your noseplates where they belong, in your own fragging business."

The other three exchanged looks of quiet amusement, and Optimus spoke for them all, "Of course Ratchet, we will do as you command."

"Good."

_Fin._


End file.
